rgk_lfc

Surprised folks think Man Utd have had a poor window. Wan-Bissaka has potentially solved their right-back problem for the next 5-10 years. Maguire is a quality defender. Definitely overpriced but Utd have a ton of money. So it doesn't matter whether Maguire is value for money or not.

It is all from the same PFM playbook I know we have an Aston Villa fan who posts here sometimes. I am sure he will recognize variants of those quotes but with the same underlying theme.

I am an outsider so feel free to disregard this post. Couple of points. Why is he is NUFC through and through a criteria to fill the most the important position in a 100 million dollar operation? This point is not just at Newcastle but at other clubs also. It also seems to be a common line to justify PFM appointments at other places. I get it if the person has a unique connection, best placed to incorporate a style of football due to his past connection with the club like Guardiola or Keegan. Or the person can use his legendary status to make changes which other people cant, like Zidane. But otherwise, does it matter? Especially with someone as shit as a resume as Bruce. I am dreading the time, the calls for Gerrard to take over, start in the media. If he is definitely NUFC through and through and has the club at heart, why did he manage Sunderland? It is not like he needed the money? He had opportunities to manage NUFC in the past which he turned down. Steve Bruce might have a soft spot for NUFC, but let us be honest. He is here because at this stage in his career, no other club with even half the profile of NUFC in the premier league would touch him with a bargepole. That is the only reason. He probably cannot believe the fact that he is at a PL club. He also knows that even if he fails miserably, as long as he is being discussed in the media (which your club will ensure due to its profile), PFMs are like whac-a-mole, will pop up somewhere. never seen a bad post from this lad, always on the fucking money Yep, always worth reading his views. He gets it a lot more than some actual supporters of the club, that's the mad thing. I have experienced exactly the same thing ten years ago when Rafa was replaced by Hodgson. Media blitz about how Hodgson bough positivity to the club. Players are now able to "express" themselves. Release the shackles. None of this pesky tactics which is restraining the midfielders from showing their true talents. Training ground is now a happier place. Arms around the shoulder approach to management. All from the classic PFM and their desperate media shill playbook. You can expect similar quotes from Bruce also. 22 September: “They’ll be a formidable challenge” (Before facing Fourth Division Northampton Town) 24 September: "The protest does not help" 17 October: "As good as we have played all season" (After the woeful loss to Everton) 17 October: “To get a result here would have been Utopia” (Also after the defeat to Everton) 21 October: "We will cross that bridge when we come to it" (On rumours of Torres to Manchester United) https://www.lfchistory.net/Articles/Article/3279 I think his quotes after Everton loss and Torres to Utd rumors finally drove people over the edge. I see a lot of parallels here. And you are in a worse shape because while we were declining, we still had a number of great players to rely on and as bad as Hodgson was for us, compared to Steve Bruce, he is Arrigo Sacchi.

I am an outsider so feel free to disregard this post. Couple of points. Why is he is NUFC through and through a criteria to fill the most the important position in a 100 million dollar operation? This point is not just at Newcastle but at other clubs also. It also seems to be a common line to justify PFM appointments at other places. I get it if the person has a unique connection, best placed to incorporate a style of football due to his past connection with the club like Guardiola or Keegan. Or the person can use his legendary status to make changes which other people cant, like Zidane. But otherwise, does it matter? Especially with someone as shit as a resume as Bruce. I am dreading the time, the calls for Gerrard to take over, start in the media. If he is definitely NUFC through and through and has the club at heart, why did he manage Sunderland? It is not like he needed the money? He had opportunities to manage NUFC in the past which he turned down. Steve Bruce might have a soft spot for NUFC, but let us be honest. He is here because at this stage in his career, no other club with even half the profile of NUFC in the premier league would touch him with a bargepole. That is the only reason. He probably cannot believe the fact that he is at a PL club. He also knows that even if he fails miserably, as long as he is being discussed in the media (which your club will ensure due to its profile), PFMs are like whac-a-mole, will pop up somewhere.

I was one of them. The irritating part of Rafa being replaced by Hodgson was the patronizing tone of the media and the justification for every result. With Bruce at the helm, you are going to see a unity among news media, all of them pushing the same agenda in unison. When a PFM is being compared to someone like Rafa by the fans, it is unbelievable the amount of unity shown by the media in defending the PFM. Bad results, not Bruce's or Ashley's fault. Geordies expect too much. Bruce is unfairly being targeted creating a poisonous atmosphere. Rafa is to blame for leaving the club at the last minute. His poor signings caused the issue. And if Bruce manages to keep you up next season, it will be heralded as the greatest achievement in British football since Clough. The sad part is, some of the fans actually fall for this.

Koulibay on Rafa There is an expression, “When you learn all the languages, you can open all the doors.” I will not lie to you, I am just as guilty as anyone of having my own ideas about people and places. Before I came to Napoli, I was really anxious because I didn’t know the language, and I had heard some people talking bad about the mafia and crime and all this stuff. I had never been there, so I didn’t know if they were telling the truth. Actually, this is a funny story. When I was in Belgium playing for Genk, my friend Ahmed was coming to stay at my house for a few days. So I’m waiting for him to arrive from the train, and I get this call from a strange number. I answer, in English, “Hello? Who is this?” The voice says, “Hello, this is Rafa Benítez.” I say, “Come on, Ahmed, stop playing with me. I am waiting here for you.” I hang up the phone. He calls me again, and now I’m annoyed. I say, “Ahmed, stop it. I am here. When do you arrive?” He says, “Hello? I’m Rafa Benítez.” I hang up the phone again. Then I get a call from my agent. I pick up the phone. He says, “Kouli, how are you? Have you heard from Rafa Benítez at Napoli? He’s going to call you.” I said, “What?! Are you kidding me? I think he just called me. I thought it was my friend playing a joke!” My agent calls Rafa to explain what happened, and then Rafa calls me again, and I pick up the phone like nothing has happened. I say, “Hello, Rafa! Hello! Bonjour! Hola! Hello!” He says, “Hello, do you want me to speak in English?” I say, “As you wish, we speak whatever you want.” So we ended up speaking in French. He was asking me so many questions — do you have a girlfriend, do you like to go out to party, do you know the city, the players? I said, “Well, Mister … I know Hamšík?” The truth is, I didn’t really know the players or anything about the city, but of course I knew Rafa Benítez, and I was very impressed with everything he said. I called my agent right away and I said, “Do whatever you have to do. We’re going to Napoli.” There were only 48 hours left in the winter transfer window, and Napoli could not work out a deal with Genk. But Rafa was true to his word, and he bought me in the summer. When I arrived for my medical, I was very nervous, because I didn’t speak any Italian yet. I was greeted by the chairman, Mr. De Laurentiis, in the hallway. And I think this says everything about Napoli and the club. He’s looking at me kind of funny, and he says, “Oh, you’re Koulibaly?” I say, “Yes, I am Koulibaly.” He says, “But you’re not tall? Aren’t you 1.92 meters?” I say, “No, Mr. President, I am 1.86 meters.” He says, “Damn! It is written everywhere that you are 1.92! I am going to have to speak to Genk and get some money back!” I say, “It’s alright, Mr. President, you pay the full amount. I will give every centimeter back to you on the field, don’t worry.” He liked that a lot. He was laughing and he said, “O.K., O.K., you are welcome here in Napoli, Koulibaly. You are welcome.” Mr. President, you pay the full amount. I will give every centimeter back to you on the field, don’t worry. After my medical, Rafa took me out to lunch, and the first thing he did after we sat down, before we even got the menus, he took all the wine glasses from the other tables. He was laying them out on the table and sliding them around. I am thinking, What is he doing? Is he mad? He said, “O.K., now I show you the tactics.” The waiter comes over, and the Mister is pushing the glasses everywhere, saying, “This is how we play. You go here, then you go there. Do you understand? Now, you must do two things very quickly: You must understand these tactics, and you must learn Italian.” I said, “O.K., boss, O.K.” When I returned from a little vacation, Rafa shut me in a room with the head of video analysis, and he was showing me all of my best plays. Sensational passes, dribbling, sliding tackles. He says, “This, this and this?” I say, “Yes? It’s good, no?” He says, “Don’t do this shit anymore.” I say, “But I won the ball back!” It’s hard to translate the next part, but he says, “This is ass! You won it back because of your strength. If your opponent was smarter, you would be in trouble.” Then he shows me this other video. Very boring. Normal plays. He’s smiling and he says, “Yes! This is good. This is very good.” I say, “But, sir, these are simple plays.” He says, “Yes, Kouli, exactly.” This says everything about my experience here. When I arrived in Italy, I was a boy. I became a better footballer, because I learned top-level tactics. They are so meticulous with the tactics here. But the most important thing is that I also became a family man and a real Neapolitan.

I wouldn't be surprised if Pep moves to Juve in a couple of years and Sarri is like a transition between Allegri and Pep.

So so happy now. Hard luck to the couple of Spurs fans who posts regularly on here. No doubt they will improve further under Poch. Came in to check how the takeover is going on for you. With a decent budget, I have no doubt you will see similar nights under Rafa. After all, he has one CL, two UEFA cups, and has reached the semi-finals of European competitions 8 times in 11 attempts all with unfancied squads. The confidence we have in Europe in the modern era is due to this man.

From what I read it seems he wants to know what budget he has to work with and have transfers done quicker which is reasonable, but he wants to spend the money as he sees fit and if that means spending it all on players over 30 years old then he feels his decisions shouldn't be questioned. Ashley is probably the extreme case, but not many owners will give managers that sort of control these days. I do think the club has to compromise though to allow some experienced players be signed and getting Rondon makes sense as he has proven to be quality this season. I agree with a lot of the demands Benitez has asked from the club, but its just not realistic to expect Ashley or even other clubs to give the kind of control he wants from transfers even managers at Man United, Liverpool and Chelsea have to work under directors of football or transfer committees. I do agree with this however much it frustrates us, these days managers don't get to dictate buying policy and I just don't see Ashley compromising at all. It's going to fuck us over big time in the long run, we'll go back to having a team of random bargain parts instead of a well organised squad which understands how to implement a game plan devised by a manager who knows exactly what he wants. I think Rafa wants to dictate buying policy at Newcastle because there is no structure there. At LFC we have Edwards (our DOF + main scout), Gordon (finance guy), and Klopp. Gordon gets the total budget from the owners. Klopp makes the list of requirements and type of players available to Edwards. Edwards scouts and creates a list with ranking and value. Then the three of them get together and make decisions on the players depending on Klopps needs, budget, value, and price of each player. Rafa would be absolutely fine with such a system. Problem is that under Ashley there has been no coherent purchasing strategy which is aimed at helping Newcastle compete at the highest level. Add to that his history of screwing people. The thing with us though is that we have had similar structures, but what happens is that Charnley looks at the list, organises it from price (cheapest) and doesn’t go past a certain point. They will look at Perez who was signed for something like £2m and is doing well now and think that players like him can still be found for around that price. The thing is though Perez was basically a unique situation where the club pretty much had to sell him cheaply. These days there is no La Liga club going to sell a player to a Premier League club for that much now, and we know that because we sold a young player from our academy to Everton for £6m (who had never played for us), and even MLS teams are not prepared to sell their stars cheaply now, look at Almirón. But the system is only as good as the competency of the people and the objective of the owner. Edwards and Gordon are in a different league compared to Charnley. So is FSG compared to Ashley. I dont think Rafa wants complete control. He is ok with other people having power as long as there is transparency and competency. In his first few years at LFC, he was happy to bring in Rodolfo Borrell from Barca and make him in charge of the youth team development. There was another guy from Barca whom he bought in and he became some kind of defacto DOF. It was only when G&H took over, that the trust was broken, transparency was lost. That is when he fought for total control.

From what I read it seems he wants to know what budget he has to work with and have transfers done quicker which is reasonable, but he wants to spend the money as he sees fit and if that means spending it all on players over 30 years old then he feels his decisions shouldn't be questioned. Ashley is probably the extreme case, but not many owners will give managers that sort of control these days. I do think the club has to compromise though to allow some experienced players be signed and getting Rondon makes sense as he has proven to be quality this season. I agree with a lot of the demands Benitez has asked from the club, but its just not realistic to expect Ashley or even other clubs to give the kind of control he wants from transfers even managers at Man United, Liverpool and Chelsea have to work under directors of football or transfer committees. I do agree with this however much it frustrates us, these days managers don't get to dictate buying policy and I just don't see Ashley compromising at all. It's going to fuck us over big time in the long run, we'll go back to having a team of random bargain parts instead of a well organised squad which understands how to implement a game plan devised by a manager who knows exactly what he wants. I think Rafa wants to dictate buying policy at Newcastle because there is no structure there. At LFC we have Edwards (our DOF + main scout), Gordon (finance guy), and Klopp. Gordon gets the total budget from the owners. Klopp makes the list of requirements and type of players available to Edwards. Edwards scouts and creates a list with ranking and value. Then the three of them get together and make decisions on the players depending on Klopps needs, budget, value, and price of each player. Rafa would be absolutely fine with such a system. Problem is that under Ashley there has been no coherent purchasing strategy which is aimed at helping Newcastle compete at the highest level. Add to that his history of screwing people.

For such a methodical person, his career choices have been driven by emotion than logic. Of course, nothing is set in stone but I do think he is going to stay at Newcastle. Mainly because of how quite he has been. Rafa is not the type to quietly slip out of the back door. If he is leaving, he will drag Ashley through the mud. I think he is going to leave signing the contract till the very last minute so that he can get whatever leverage he can.

The only criticism I would have on Rafa is his ability to spend money on random dogshit fullbacks - Josemi, Kronkamp, Dossena, Degen. He did strike gold with Arbeloa. But I think he purchased Arbeloa because he was playing as a central defender for Deportivo and not as a fullback Johnson was an OK purchase but we did spend quite a bit of money on him at that time.

His transfer record was very good for us also. Dont base on your opinion on the British media which was full of PFM acolytes ready to stick their boots in at every opportunity. Kuyt, Garcia, Reina, Alonso, Torres, Mascherano, Arbeloa - great players who made significant contributions and many of them were sold at big profits. He revamped the youth system and made some canny purchases there also - Sterling ( sold for 50 million), Ibe (sold for 15 million), Brad Smith (sold for 7 million). Several others who made useful contributions to the first team squad and later were sold for million here and there. He was not perfect and did have his duds (particularly at fullbacks) but his transfer record was above average.

He is definitely above average compared to PFMs. He has the right idea in terms of how to play football. If the circumstances are in his favor, he has the ability to create teams which play high quality attacking football. His teams play one way and when it clicks they are brilliant to watch. He is also good with young players and invests time in developing them. But he is not an elite manager like Rafa. He is not the type to come to a bad situation and arrest the slide by lifting everyone around him using his tactical know-how and personality. His attacking coaching is very good. I can definitely see him having a great first season with you guys with his attacking strategies combined with Rafa's defensive training drills which the players will remember. Similar to what happened at Everton with Martinez in his first season. But once the defensive discipline wears off, not sure how he will perform with you. He is a nice guy but press conferences and statements can be grating especially when he is not winning. He really needs to cut down on cringeworthy quotes. Bottom line is he is a more than a decent manager, just not as good as he thinks he is.

Anyone can beat City once. But I haven't seen a manager who can consistently pull rabbits out of the hat over two decades now. He did for Valencia, he did it for us, and not he is going the same for you. The longevity is impressive. I think a big part of it is how he views football. He grew up playing subbuteo and chess. And apparently kids used to hate playing him. Because he always won. In the rare event he lost he used to torment the other kid by analyzing all of his moves and continuously playing against him until he won many times. That is how he views football. He is an all time great in identifying weaknesses in oppositions and creating systems through drills which nullify oppositions strengths and exploit their weaknesses. That is the reason he is good at European football. I think in the 11 or 12 times he participated in Europe, he has reached the semifinal 8 times which is a phenomenal record as in most cases he managed less fancy squads. With a little bit of quality, you are safe backing his team in a one on one fight. In a way, I think that is why he is not that suited for teams like Madrid. He will start complicating things there. He is like that kid in high school who can understand fermats theorem's but will still get only 70s in the final as solving quadratic equations is too boring. In a way, I am surprised some of the international teams haven't taken a chance on him. He offers a more than decent chance for teams like Japan, Korea, and Senegal for world cup glory. To win a world cup you need to win 7 games right. I cannot see anyone better at devising systems to neutralize those teams.

Not sure if we are good enough to capitalize this favor you guys did, but Rafa's stature among LFC fans just took one more leap. https://twitter.com/the_kop_king_/status/1090372314984779776

if he doesn't get any backing this january and keeps us up it will be absolutely remarkable tbph Not really when Cardiff, Huddersfield and Fulham are so shite Havent all three teams backed their managers to a reasonable amount?

Having said that, I think if he manages to keep Newcastle up ( which I am confident he will) this season, it will probably be his greatest achievement. He has pulled out magical victories at other clubs but this is the first where the owner is actively trying to sabotage progress made.

That CL is singularly the greatest managerial achievement I had the privilege of following in the last 20 years. Everyone focuses on the final but he was pulling rabbits out the hat every single game. Look at the Juve vs LFC squad in the quarter-final. Look at our subs and Juve was managed by Capello (who is no mug). Juventus: 1-Gianluigi Buffon; 21-Lilian Thuram, 4-Paolo Montero, 28-Fabio Cannavaro; 16-Mauro Camoranesi, 8-Emerson, 11-Pavel Nedved, 24-Ruben Olivera, 19-Gianluca Zambrotta; 9-Zlatan Ibrahimovic, 10-Alessandro Del Piero © Liverpool: 1-Jerzy Dudek; 3-Steve Finnan, 4-Sami Hyypia ©, 23-Jamie Carragher, 21-Djimi Traore; 18-Antonio Nunez, 25-Igor Biscan, 14-Xabi Alonso, 6-John Arne Riise; 10-Luis Garcia, 5-Milan Baros. Subs: Carson, Cisse, Smicer, Le Tallec, Warnock, Welsh, Potter.

The idea behind a devil's advocate is someone deliberately taking a contrarian stance so that an issue is looked at from all angles. The basis being such a discussion will lead to a deeper understanding of an issue which is not well understood. You can easily understand Ashley's impact on Newcastle by a five-minute look at numbers and facts - league position during his ownership and before his ownership, comparison of net spend with championship and other premier league clubs, money invested in training and youth facilities etc. This is not string theory. The damage can be measured by looking at numbers and facts. There is no devil's advocate role here as there is nothing deep or complex to understand and debate. Unless you are so thick that you cannot understand basic arithmetic where 110 million (money spent by Brighton) is greater than 1 million (money spent by Newcastle).

You have a higher chance of being hired as the Manure manager than Rafa.

The tactics wasn't pretty but you were well on your way to get a point. Chelsea was getting frustrated and their confidence was seeping away. The ref changed the dynamic of the game with that penalty. He gave Chelsea a shot in the arm which affected the flow. Looking at the poor decisions this weekend alone, the premier league should consider bringing in VAR this season itself (I know it is not feasible). There is no excuse for not having VAR next season.

Cheers. I hope he gets the chance.

I'm assuming that isn't meant in the sassy tone in which it reads. Absolutely not. I apologize if it comes across that way. Meant no disrespect at all. English is also not my first language. In general, we have had very good results against Hughton teams but always liked the way he set up his teams. I haven't watched a lot of his teams though. Just feel that it would be interesting to see how he would do with better quality players - maybe a club like Leicester? I was curious to know if you shared my opinion or whether I was overrating him.