Chris_R

On a serious note, there's no reason for Ashley to take down the SD signs. Even if he has sold the club, even if he has agreed to not continue advertising there, there's no reason for him to take down the signs. Could just leave them and let the next person deal with them, it's not like the new season starts tomorrow. There's plenty of time and no reason for him to do anything himself.

Knowing our luck, those signs are probably just being replaced by bigger ones.

Depends which side announces it. Sunday is a normal working day in the middle-east, they work Sunday-Thursday with Friday and Saturday as their weekend.

He'd have to actively actively try to destroy is to be worse. At times it's been hard to think that hasn't been Ashley's aim (I'm sure it wasn't) such were the levels of incompetence he's demonstrated whilst running us. Being worse would require actual malice. I'm happy to roll the dice on this one.

Those hands look fake TBH. It's from 2012 apparently Does that make his hands more or less fake now?

I watched the whole thing, and it literally never entered my head to not want Liverpool to win because Henderson was playing for them. In fact Henderson's past never entered my head either. Seething? Ok.

Yeah, unlikely to be Rio unless he'd banged his head and knocked some sense into himself, but he was the name that came to mind. May have been Carragher. Some ex-player turned pundit from that era, I'm sure.

No, there's no conspiracy. But in the words of a pundit (Rio?), if you're trying to sell your house for 7 years and you can't, you're being unrealistic with your price. It's all well and good saying nobody has matched his price, and of course as the 100% owner he can ask whatever price he wants, but that price is clearly too much if we are for sale yet nobody will pay it.

Yeah, that thread title is proper eye-AIDS. Can someone with at least a passing grasp of the English language sort out out? Fuck's sake.

Nah I think you'll just see some goals on local news followed by some fan interviews but no extended footage. Dammit. I'll just put the goals on a loop and watch that for an hour instead.

Quick question - Are the highlights of this on terrestrial TV tonight? Had a quick google but all I can find are youtube videos of the goals. I'd like to watch some prolonged, agonising, professionally-edited package instead and revel in their misfortune over a beer or 4.

Would be the perfect end to a beautiful day. I've been cutting down on the booze lately, but if Rafa said he was staying after that Sunderland game, I think I'd clear out the local off-license.

Perfect game. From the own goal, that they didn't even score, giving them false hope early on, to the equaliser bringing them back to Earth and then the winning goal coming just 6 seconds from the end of stoppage time. Glorious. I couldn't stop laughing when it went in. Small-time, bitter bunch of weirdos. Enjoy your continued slide into the obscurity you deserve.

This. Remember when we sold Cabaye for £20m and speculated about how we'd reinvest the money?

They can and will book him in for loads of things, he's still contracted here. It's his job. I get why people want to read stuff into this kind of thing, but you really can't. An incredibly professional man going to meetings that his boss has organised or doing legitimate club-related work whilst still under contract are not in themselves indicative of anything positive. I wish they were, but they're just not.

He was just talking about Game of Thrones.

Guarantee that if they win, about 80,000 will claim to have been there.

Is this your first time clicking a Chronicle article?

So? He always sees out his contracts. We know this about him. He could have walked away at any point for a fee, maybe from February for no fee. But he would never do either, it's not what he does. He was always going to be our manager until the day his contract expired, unless he was sacked. That remains the case, and he'll conduct himself with the utmost decorum and professionalism until that day comes. If that includes going to pointless meetings with fatso, then that's what he'll do because that's the man he is. To attempt to read anything in to him continuing to do what he has always done at every club is to completely missjudge the entire essence of Rafa Benitez. That said, I get why people are doing that, we all want to believe. Me included. But let's be realistic here, Rafa is just being Rafa here, there's nothing we can read into his continued attendance of meetings and failure to say "fuck it" and stomp off.

Exactly this. Doesn't mean it still wont end with him walking but still talking means there is willingness and something to talk about... ..hopefully not severance lol. It absolutely doesn't. It just means he's doing what his bosses ask him to do whilst still under contract. Of course it doesn't mean there's NOT something to sort out either, but you simply cannot read into continued dialogue the things you're trying to. He's simply going to meetings his bosses have asked him to attend. Knowing him as we do, how can he not?

Why do people persist with this? Things we know for certain: - Rafa's a consummate professional who always honours his contract - Rafa is presently under contract Given the above, if you're employed by someone and they ask you to go to a meeting, you go. If they ask you to come back tomorrow, you come back tomorrow. Anything else is breach of contract and Rafa will not do that, we know this. He'll go to every meeting he's invited to, he'll listen to everything said to him. That doesn't mean for one instant that he'll sign anything at the end of it. He'd be mad to, and another thing we know about Rafa is he's clearly not mad. He will continue to attend every meeting the club ask him to, because that's his job and he's been asked to attend these meetings by his bosses. To read anything more in to that is crazy, to suggest that him still attending meetings is a positive is just delusional. I absolutely hope I'm wrong, Rafa is the best thing about the club at the moment, the only thing that keeps me even remotely interested. But he will leave this summer, I'm as sure as I can be about that.

He'd be mad to stay, and he's clearly not mad. To stay he'd need assurances that Ashley will simply never give. He's playing it perfectly though, ensuring he cannot be accused of scuppering anything or of making his position untenable by what he says to the media, but I can imagine no other outcome than him walking away at the end of his contract. And quite rightly, too.

We've tried to read that into every quote of his whenever there's been a takeover rumor for the last 3 years.

Nothing would surprise me less.

Byewtiful