Rafa Benítez (now unemployed)

[Dokko]

Rafa will have managed a quarter of the teams in the league, if he takes another job. Along with his Chinese stint, that doesn't sit right with me. 

 

I'm fully on board this takeover doesn't happen without him, and for that i'm grateful. I'm also glad he fought Ashley for us, but he played the fans, and then chased the money. I'm sure we hold him in more fondness that he does us, we were just a job, like the many he's had since.

 

Overall i'm very neutral about him. 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 10, 2023 by Dokko

[LiquidAK]

Rafa was and still is a great manager, and a great man. We owe him so much for staying with us after relegation and getting us back up - people seem to forget his club before us was Real Madrid - Real Madrid ffs! Guarantee the takeover would never have happened without him.

 

Everton is absolutely toxic at the moment and has been for some time - it was a bad move for him to make but can see why he went there given the connection he has with the city and his family being based there. I'd back him to keep Leicester up and turn things around there.

[LV]

1 hour ago, magvicar said:

I think Rafa is a poisoned chalice for any club to be fair.

I wasn't too keen on him at Newcastle as time went on. 

 

I don't like his style of football and I don't think players do.

I also don't think he has any man management skills.

 

But most of all I don't like the way he left the club, regardless of whether people hated Ashley.

His utter bull crap of saying that Chinese club was just the project he wanted was laughable. I mean it had nothing to do with the 12 million contract or so he was offered to do absolutely nothing more than any average Joe could've done.

 

I feel sorry for any club that takes him on, on the wages he would be asking.

I just don't like the bloke.

Absolute mess of a post 

[LV]

1 hour ago, Gawalls said:

Completely agree but for years not said this is I know I’m in the minority opinion.

And rightly so

[HaydnNUFC]

Page 855 onwards in this thread will always be a fantastically hilarious read.

[Hanshithispantz]

Rafa’s just not an exciting name anymore, I imagine most fans look at a club like Brighton with De Zerbi and realise that there are just far more exciting options out there, and if those in charge are genuinely clued up a side like Leicester could be challenging for the CL as we are. That’s just very unlikely to happen under Rafa, the game has moved on from his glory days at Liverpool.

 

Love the bloke but if I was a Leicester fan I would have been praying for someone like Vincent Kompany.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 10, 2023 by Hanshithispantz

[KaKa]

11 minutes ago, Dokko said:

Rafa will have managed a quarter of the teams in the league, if he takes another job. Along with his Chinese stint, that doesn't sit right with me. 

 

I'm fully on board this takeover doesn't happen without him, and for that i'm grateful. I'm also glad he fought Ashley for us, but he played the fans, and then chased the money. I'm sure we hold him in more fondness that he does us, we were just a job, like the many he's had since.

 

Overall i'm very neutral about him. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How did he play the fans man?

[GeordieDazzler]

I think he’s a good appointment with an eye to possible relegation. Most of their bigger players will clearly leave in the summer and he could be left with a young mouldable squad. 
 

He’s always done better with young players he can mentor and teach who can see that he is improving their career and prospects. It’s when he’s given a team of established stars they don’t take kindly to someone trying to tell them they are doing the basics wrong.

 

They have a lot of players who’s deals expire in the summer and many more with one year left. May be a bit like Burnley where the fire sale can be used to build a more dynamic young squad with some loan signings on top. As shit as they have been they still have quite a few saleable assets.

[duo]

Rafa was the only shinning light during the Ashley years.  Gave us something to be proud of when he was here - he is an absolute class act.  Agreed we have moved on but will always have the utmost respect for the man.

[LV]

1 hour ago, The Butcher said:

Expected more from him. Expected him to stay at the highest level and not to go after the money. He'd already earned hundreds of billions during his time in football.

 

Might sound daft, but I've never looked at the man the same after that.

There were no other suitable top jobs in Europe around man. What was the football obsessed fella supposed to do? Sit at home?

 

I will never understand this point of view. It was just Ashley PR and it’s been done to death now. If you still don’t get it well…. I don’t know what to say. 

[Dokko]

8 minutes ago, KaKa said:

 

How did he play the fans man?

 

If you don't know, then you're probably still suffering. It was all just a game to him, he won plenty of the battles but in the end, lost the war. 

[LV]

2 minutes ago, Dokko said:

 

If you don't know, then you're probably still suffering. It was all just a game to him, he won plenty of the battles but in the end, lost the war. 

That’s bollocks man. You’ve fallen for Ashley’s PR. 
 

He loved the club and the fans and saw us as a project, a sleeping giant he could help resurrect.

 

He was badly let down…. and by the looks of it still is. 

[Ace]

I love Rafa but it shows how his stock has fallen that he’s thought of as a poorer option than Angry Ted Lasso. 

[Amir_9]

20 minutes ago, duo said:

Rafa was the only shinning light during the Ashley years.  Gave us something to be proud of when he was here - he is an absolute class act.  Agreed we have moved on but will always have the utmost respect for the man.

 

He made the most of what he had whilst fully respecting the fans and the club - some people say oh its just a PR spin, well what else is the other option? Pardew telling us what our place is again and again?

 

Sure some transfers were totally off during his tenure but he is a Champions League and La Liga winning manager that stayed with us to take us back up and stabilised us when we came back (with more or less the Championship squad). He never needed to stay beyond our relegation.

 

I can understand people who may have seen him as "negative" (I mean he did make us hard to play against and before him it was a long long time before that was ever the case with an NUFC team) but I will never understand people who outright call his time here as anything but helping us move forwards (for the time). His club choices after leaving us have been terrible for him but I am glad that he managed us as he, for me, at a certain time in football was definitely a top manager. Perhaps not elite, but top.

 

 

Edited April 10, 2023 by Amir_9

[The Butcher]

6 minutes ago, LV said:

There were no other suitable top jobs in Europe around man. What was the football obsessed fella supposed to do? Sit at home?

 

I will never understand this point of view. It was just Ashley PR and it’s been done to death now. If you still don’t get it well…. I don’t know what to say. 

He could've waited a few months like. He's managed to wait over a year since he got sacked at Everton.

 

[KaKa]

7 minutes ago, Dokko said:

 

If you don't know, then you're probably still suffering. It was all just a game to him, he won plenty of the battles but in the end, lost the war. 

 

Incredible that some of you actually bought into Mike Ashley's spin on the whole situation.

 

The same guy that did Keegan and Hughton dirty, and brought the likes of Wise, Llambias, Kinnear, Pardew and Bruce to the club.

 

Mad world man. Mad world. 

[KaKa]

5 minutes ago, Ace said:

I love Rafa but it shows how his stock has fallen that he’s thought of as a poorer option than Angry Ted Lasso. 

 

Goes to show how dumb most owners are.

 

Rafa in the Wolves or West Ham jobs would be scary, but thankfully they're both too stupid to ever bring him in. Let them stay in mid table.

 

 

[Menace]

Well, there's also been plenty of jobs in Spain since, his stock has definitely fallen like.

[Hanshithispantz]

In what way would Rafa at Wolves be ‘scary’? 

[wormy]

1 hour ago, astraguy said:

I'd love him back as a dof, the man can spot a bargain

 

Can we please not go down this rabbit hole again. I love the man but thinking of the inevitable power struggles gives me heart palpitations. 

 

As far as going to Leicester is concerned, it'd be interesting to see how it played out. He'd be joining at practically the same stage of the season as he did us, with Leicester in the same position of 19th, too. But two points adrift and no games in hand compared to our one point adrift and a game in hand.

 

I think it's widely accepted the problem with us was that he didn't have quite enough time to shake the McClaren stank, so I imagine a lot will come down to how quickly the Leicester players respond to his methods. 

[Kid Icarus]

He can go anywhere he wants and I'll always want him to do well providing it's never at our expense like.

 

It's at the point now where he's probably one of the most underrated managers out there.

[duo]

4 minutes ago, Amir_9 said:

 

He made the most of what he had whilst fully respecting the fans and the club - some people say oh its just a PR spin, well what else is the other option? Pardew telling us what our place is again and again?

 

Sure some transfers were totally off during his tenure but he is a Champions League and La Liga winning manager that stayed with us to take us back up and stabilised us when we came back. He never needed to stay beyond our relegation.

 

I can understand people who may have seen him as "negative" (I mean he did make us hard to play against and before him it was a long long time before that was ever the case with an NUFC team) but I will never understand people who outright call his time here as anything but helping us move forwards (for the time). His club choices after leaving us have been terrible for him but I am glad that he managed us as he, for me, at a certain time in football was definitely a top manager. Perhaps not elite, but top.

 

 

 

 

I think people forget he brought Amanda Staveley to the table, and she brought in PIF. Without Rafa there is a good chance Ashley would still be the owner of our club.

[KaKa]

1 minute ago, Menace said:

Well, there's also been plenty of jobs in Spain since, his stock has definitely fallen like.

 

Because he has said he wants to stay in the UK with his family.

[Dokko]

5 minutes ago, KaKa said:

 

Incredible that some of you actually bought into Mike Ashley's spin on the whole situation.

 

The same guy that did Keegan and Hughton dirty, and brought the likes of Wise, Llambias, Kinnear, Pardew and Bruce to the club.

 

Mad world man. Mad world. 

 

Incredible people still think in mono and live in cartoon worlds where only good vs bad exists.

 

 

[Menace]

....

 

Like in China?

 

I have respect for Rafa, and I feel like he did a good job with the resources he had here. Let's not beat around the bush though his last job was poor. That Rondon signing was absolutely honking.

 

 

Edited April 10, 2023 by Menace