Rafa signs new Liverpool contract

[Guest mandakin]

Liverpool Fan here and these aremy thoughts:

 

I think Rafa Benitez is a brilliant young manager. One of the managerial greats and will be remembered as one when he retires. I believe this liverpool team is showing progress every year. Maybe not at the rate some people want, maybe not at an obvious rate which is perceptible outsiders like quiklaani. But I watch the games and there is some progress. Some times it is not just about points table and it is just not about the number of youngsters who are in first team. Trust me when I say that he has done a great job for the youth team and your already seeing the results with Insua. Liverpool have not ,I repeat, have not regressed under him.

 

His ability to pick out cheap good transfers is not really great. But it is alrite. One more Torres like signing and we will be laughing.

 

He may not be as good as Ferguson but that is no reason to sack a person. I dont think there is anyone who is as good as Ferguson.

 

Another reason is economic. Rafa Benitez assures a top 4 position and a champions league run every season which brings in money. He always self finances his transfers through champions league runs. There are very few managers who give such a guarantee. Considering our finances it is not good, it will be madness to sack such a manager and hope that a new manager does well. If the new manager does not qualify for the champs league or is not really proficient in Europe, the consequences could be disasterous for us.

 

I dont think he was moments away from being sacked if he lost against Madrid and Man U. Tom Hicks had offered Rafa a contract and they have been negotiating for a long time. I dont think he lucked his way into a new contract. But even if he did, so what. I remember Ferguson was also in a similar situation during his early years in Man U.

 

Sometimes all you need to do hire a good young promising manager and show a lot of patience and trust. I am surprised the Man U fans are laughing at the fact that we are actually showing patience. Rafae Benitez has done a lot of good work behind the scenes. He has worked with constraints with respect to infighting, CEO not really listening to his footbaling advise and IMO has done a good job. This is not really based on points tally, this is based on observing the team play.

 

Footballing progress is very non linear and it is the final jump which takes you to the next level which is the most difficult. Thats where you need to show a lot of patience. Sometimes during that phase it is just a shift in mentality, sometimes someone like Cantona. But it takes time. Look at spurs, they were in a similar position to make a jump to the next level under Jol and then they became impatient. I am glad Liverpool has not taken that route. So what if he does not win the league in 5 years. He is showing signs of winning the league. Maybe he will win the league in his 8th, 9th and 10th year. He is taking a big picture view of things and wants to establish a dynasty and is working towards that. Iam glad the board is giving him the tools.

 

He maybe a fat Spanish waiter who gives crazy press conferences, but he is our fat spanish waiter and trust me , a fucking brilliant football manager.

 

I know there are a couple of Man U, Everton and Spurs fans on this board who may disagree with everything I have written, but as I have done in the past, I will try to respond to their disagreements to the minimum. There is somethign weird about a ManU and Liverpool fan arguing in a Newcastl forum and I know it will be mightily irritating for you guys. I only post here once in a few months when I come over here to see what other fans think about Liverpool and I hope you appreciate my views as an outsider.

 

All the best for the rest of the season, I have said it before and I am going to say it now, premiership is a far moe exciting league with a fit and firing Newcastle  and I hope you guys reach that state soon. Thank you and best of luck.

 

[pedro111]

Fuckin hell, 5 pages on a manager of another club signing a new contract.

 

Couldnt give a fuck me like.

[Guest quklaani]

I don't entirely disagree with the scouser, I think it could all go right for Liverpool under Rafa.  But as I said, give him a contract through to 2014 is a big gamble, he's now effectively unsackable.

 

Oh and:

 

So what if he does not win the league in 5 years.

 

You would quite likely then no longer be the most successful team in English football, from winning the league every other year at least to 24 years without a title...  Can you imagine what it will be like for Liverpool fans if we make it to number 19 before they do?  Although that would almost certainly mean Ferguson will walk, so I guess you'd be able to draw some positives from it.

 

 

[Dave]

Fuckin hell, 5 pages on a manager of another club signing a new contract.

 

Couldnt give a fuck me like.

 

The first 3.5 were about that rant he made tbf.

[pedro111]

Fuckin hell, 5 pages on a manager of another club signing a new contract.

 

Couldnt give a f*** me like.

 

The first 3.5 were about that rant he made tbf.

 

 

Cheers boss.  You keep me right.

[M4]

This sort of "great" Benitez news always sends me back to the summer of 2004 when Liverpool finished above us but changed their manager and we waited it out so we could get Souness in...

[Dan Gleebals]

Thats at least 5 years before they win the league then

[wacko]

I honestly believe if he'd lost those last two games (the Madrid one obviously being the dominant factor) he'd have been gone by the summer.  They've been pushed into a corner by him now being "the best manager in the world ever" with scouse fans again.  Maybe it'll work out for them, but barring spectacular collapses by both of the clubs ahead of them he's bottled the league again, this time from a winning position at Christmas.

 

The one thing I will say for him staying is that if Sir Alex goes soon (combined with Chelsea being a fading force) the league might again be winnable with a low 80s points total, which his side are clearly capable of.  That and he's at least arrested their relative decline since 2006, so he seems a much better bet than he did this time last year.  People seem to forget that his post big cup winning team were very good, Liverpool's best (pointswise) in the Premier league years.  He then spent loads that summer on not especially impressive players (Pennant, Bellamy, Paletta, Kuyt, Aurelio) and they've not won anything since.  With this in mind the first half of next season should be absolutely make or break for him, but now he's secure.  Maybe that will give him the ability to really improve the side, but then if he makes another absolute hash of it in the summer and they start terribly they can't possibly sack him.  As I said, big gamble.

I don't think he'd have been fired if we'd lost the Real and Man Utd games: he makes us too much money from the CL. I think he might have walked if he hadn't got concessions regarding transfers and the academy that he wanted (he was told that he could spend £18m on the right player, but not Barry, and he had zero influence on the academy. At the moment, he basically runs his own youth team in the reserves.)

 

The 2005/06 side did so well in the league because we were dumped out of the CL relatively early. As in all of Rafa's seasons prior to this one, we were out of the running for the league by Christmas, but in the other years the league took a backseat to our CL campaigns and results suffered.

 

If Torres hadn't spent most of the season injured, I dare say we'd have 3 or 4 more points at this stage.

 

There's no way Rafa will be given a huge kitty this summer. The owners are trying to sell up before the loan they took out to buy LFC is up for renewal in the summer, so they won't want to be putting more of their own cash in, and given the current financial climate, they'll be expecting a sizable drop in revenue next season.