Rafa Benítez (now unemployed)

[TRon]

1 hour ago, HTT II said:

He’s not a clinical goalscorer in any way shape or form, but he’s such a brilliant centre-forward and is great at what he does in that role. And he seemed such a great character and a professional too. I hope he does really well at Everton, and Rafa of course. Everton as a club mean nowt to me, I neither hate them or like them, they are irrelevant really, but I’d always want Rafa to succeed wherever he was at. Plus it would shut so many people up, sadly a big number on our side who regard Rafa as a greedy bastard and Bruce having done a better job. I hope they fucking spank us at SJP and at Goodison too.

 

Aye Rondon is a smashing ambassador for football, not to mention one helluva striker who can do just about everything from a team POV. Him and Perez closing down defenders was a big part of what made us so hard to play against once he got properly fit. I don't particularly like Everton, but I do find myself wanting them to do well this season, not least because of characters like Rafa and Rondon. These are the type of personalities which make you want to support your team. 

[Yorkie]

20 minutes ago, Jimburst said:

Hold on, are they banned from calling him Rafa on that forum? how utterly pathetic.

 

Oh is that what it is? Just thought my auto correct was being annoying. Good grief. 

[Jimburst]

They're all talking about a banned name and someone else talking about the 'four letter' version, so I presume it's that.

 

Pretty small-time. 

[Jimburst]

Presumably to distance themselves from the success he had at Liverpool

[Yorkie]

Yeah, think that must be it. I posted a couple of times and got a bunch of hostility and FACTs thrown at me so think I'll leave it there. 

[nbthree3]

Good read that someone posted a few pages ago in the Rafa(el) thread on GOT https://toffeeanalysis.com/2021/09/02/rafas-everton-first-impressions/

[NEEJ]

What a bunch of whoppers they are on that Everton forum. Needlessly hostile. 

[Paully]

 

[gjohnson]

On 05/09/2021 at 13:44, TRon said:

 

Aye Rondon is a smashing ambassador for football, not to mention one helluva striker who can do just about everything from a team POV. Him and Perez closing down defenders was a big part of what made us so hard to play against once he got properly fit. I don't particularly like Everton, but I do find myself wanting them to do well this season, not least because of characters like Rafa and Rondon. These are the type of personalities which make you want to support your team. 

Rondon is massively underrated by anyone who's not seen him play regularly. I'll freely admit i thought he was a bad/cheap signing at the time, but was hugely impressed by his work rate and skill.

 

It's strange how such a good player can stay hidden from the elite for so long. Sadly he's probably a bit too old for a Champions League team to even look at him now even though he probably deserved that chance

[Mikky]

11 minutes ago, Paully said:

 

 

If you write the opposite - you get Steve Bruce

[St1pe]

33 minutes ago, Paully said:

 

Even after all this time I still find stuff like this painful. That feeling of trusting the manager and knowing we’re performing at our absolute limit is long gone. 

[KaKa]

45 minutes ago, gjohnson said:

Rondon is massively underrated by anyone who's not seen him play regularly. I'll freely admit i thought he was a bad/cheap signing at the time, but was hugely impressed by his work rate and skill.

 

It's strange how such a good player can stay hidden from the elite for so long. Sadly he's probably a bit too old for a Champions League team to even look at him now even though he probably deserved that chance

 

After his brief stint at Zenit, where he started to be more of a consistent goal threat I thought he'd get a decent move and was shocked when West Brom and Pulis signed him.

 

Pulis' terrible approach did not do the guy any favours at all, as it did not showcase all of his abilities. Pretty much ruined his chances of getting a more high profile move afterwards. 

 

Of course it would end up being Rafa that would recognise he could get so much more out of him, and get him out of that situation at West Brom. If Rafa and Rondon had stayed and got a full pre-season together along with Perez and Almiron, I reckon he would have gone on to score at least 15-20 goals for us easily, and cemented himself as a top striker in the prem.

[KaKa]

1 hour ago, Paully said:

 

 

I imagine Rafa was continuing to pore over the finer details of his team over the international break, while our manager was off for a lie about in the sun after just three games of the season.

[TRon]

1 hour ago, St1pe said:

Even after all this time I still find stuff like this painful. That feeling of trusting the manager and knowing we’re performing at our absolute limit is long gone. 

 

Yeah I find that incredibly frustrating considering how often we sign managers based on pundits thinking they are great (because they are British usually) and it was so gratifying having a manager who actually paid attention to the details and had so much football knowledge. 

The ignorant versions which we usually employ like to cover this by calling tactics a load of bollocks. I mean what else would they say?

[TRon]

1 hour ago, KaKa said:

 

After his brief stint at Zenit, where he started to be more of a consistent goal threat I thought he'd get a decent move and was shocked when West Brom and Pulis signed him.

 

Pulis' terrible approach did not do the guy any favours at all, as it did not showcase all of his abilities. Pretty much ruined his chances of getting a more high profile move afterwards. 

 

Of course it would end up being Rafa that would recognise he could get so much more out of him, and get him out of that situation at West Brom. If Rafa and Rondon had stayed and got a full pre-season together along with Perez and Almiron, I reckon he would have gone on to score at least 15-20 goals for us easily, and cemented himself as a top striker in the prem.

 

Tbf, you pretty much called it on Rondon when a lot of us who hadn't seen much of him expressed some doubt. 

[TRon]

9 minutes ago, ManDoon said:

I’ve said it loads but professional football management is the best job in the entire world. You can basically blag it, defer to your coaches/analysts/scouts. As long as you can talk in cliche, and have a remotely good team you can survive in a job long enough to get a massive Pay off. Next step is to get friendly with the journalists so you get brought up for the next job that comes along. Rinse repeatedly until you are filthy rich. 

you can do it for 20+ years apparently without any expert journalists even questioning it.

[Kanj]

Rondon was strongly linked with a move to Chelsea in summer 2018 but that didn’t materialize and he ended up joining us. Dont know if that rumor was crap or not, mind you. 
 

If Rafa stayed, that Newcastle team would have had some worthy upgrades (if Rafa could have used the money as he saw fit) and we’d be an established top 8 side. Maybe even in Europe via Europa league. Likely will brand new wing backs, new CM partner for Longstaff. 

[Consortium of one]

reading todays article in the Athletic about Rafa made me very sad and jealous at the same time.  Everton fans are beginning to sing his name.  What a treat he is.  I hope all those journos and pundits who even dared to mention Rafa and Bruce in the same sentence get it shoved right up their asses.

[Paully]

1 hour ago, Consortium of one said:

reading todays article in the Athletic about Rafa made me very sad and jealous at the same time.  Everton fans are beginning to sing his name.  What a treat he is.  I hope all those journos and pundits who even dared to mention Rafa and Bruce in the same sentence get it shoved right up their asses.

 

I couldn't bare to read it!

[Yorkie]

'Benitez was handed just £1.7 million for five summer signings. Some problem areas in the squad were simply not addressed. 

 

He is recasting Everton in a different image; one that favours collective effort over individualism and aims to improve the resources already at his disposal. An initial squad audit, conducted as he homed in on the job this summer, identified a lack of pace in wide areas and the need to provide a regular supply of crosses to an aerially dominant Calvert-Lewin. It also highlighted a lack of reliable ball-playing options at centre-back and the largely untapped potential of fringe players such as Alex Iwobi.

 

From the very first day, training has been tough, something already noted by players both in public and private. Keen to reduce the number of injury occurrences at the club, Benitez appointed a new head of sports science in Jamie Harley. Double sessions in the Orlando heat during the Florida Cup, designed with Harley’s input, had two overarching aims: improve the fitness of the group and quickly instil certain key tactical messaging. 

 

“He has been clear with them what he expects in training, and why,” says a source close to the Spaniard. “It’s been about intensity. A lot of managers say they’ve come in and got the players fitter, but Rafa really has. He tells them, ‘We’re going to go hard with a higher intensity in training because we need to be like that in matches’. He communicates what he requires, and why.”

 

Where certain younger players within the squad felt guidance was lacking under Ancelotti, particularly as they sought to rectify recurrent flaws in their own games, Benitez has taken a hands-on role in training. Players are given individual feedback and instructions. Wingers and forwards have targets for goals and assists; defenders are taught about body position and spatial awareness. At the end of sessions and games, the manager usually makes a point of heading over to a small number of players to provide feedback. Assistant Paco de Miguel and analyst Antonio Gomez have been known to highlight the good work of young players and provide encouragement.

 

“People say Rafa never puts his arms around players, and that’s true in the sense he won’t be hugging them all the time or saying he loves their new haircut or something,” says the source.

 

“He will put an arm around them and say, ‘Have you ever thought that when X makes that run, you could cut inside and do this?’ — he’s always coaching.

 

“He’ll say to Dominic (Calvert-Lewin), ‘When Demarai gets the ball, why not try this run to the near post?’, or, ‘Have you noticed that Demarai plays that ball a lot? If you make this run, you’ll have a chance when he does that’.

 

“(Midfielder) Abdoulaye Doucoure is another case in point. Rafa said he stood out for Watford against Newcastle and that he’s always liked him. He spoke to him a lot. Doucoure was maybe thinking that because he was at Everton he had to be playing lots of passes but Rafa told him, ‘These are your strengths, play to them’. He broke it down. ‘Win the ball, give it to someone and then get yourself up around the box’.

 

“Players respond to him, because they really sense he can improve them.”'

 

 

 

 

We gave him away so we could buy Steve Bruce for £6.5million.

[Yorkie]

'For Benitez, punctuality is crucial. If players are late for training there is a system of fines — and there are no exceptions.

 

“You might get someone really honest and dependable like Seamus whose car will break down, it’s not his fault, and he’ll ring ahead,” says a source. “Rafa wouldn’t hammer him but he’d say, ‘We will still need to work something out for your fine — maybe it’s paying for a meal with the team’.

 

“It doesn’t matter who you are — everyone plays by the same rules.

 

“It’s the same in training. No favourites. If anything, Rafa will probably push the better players even harder because he knows that they’re capable of more.”'

 

 

 

Kill iz. 

[TRon]

I used to love reading all those articles and quotes from former players when Rafa signed for us. Nothing makes you feel better than knowing you have a manager who understands the game at such a deep level.  Honestly felt like we had become a proper club again after more than a decade. 

[Miggys First Goal]

Fuck off bumping this thread, man. It's like a form of torture.

[r0cafella]

The more I think about it, the more I think Ashley is such a spiteful cunt. 
 

Ashley would get more money/exposure having Rafa running the show than practically any other manager. Getting rid of him was surely motivated by his loathing of the fans. 

[Ben]

1 hour ago, r0cafella said:

The more I think about it, the more I think Ashley is such a spiteful cunt. 
 

Ashley would get more money/exposure having Rafa running the show than practically any other manager. Getting rid of him was surely motivated by his loathing of the fans. 

He also needs yes men under him