Rafa Benítez

[Paully]

6 minutes ago, Ben said:

In what capacity was he there last night ? 

Ticket in the ballot! 
 

great to see the beautiful man back! 

[Terrymac1966]

11 minutes ago, Ben said:

In what capacity was he there last night ? 

52000 plus 🙃

[Abacus]

I think it's the mark of a great manager to make the best of what you have, which Rafa did here.

 

Howe is doing it as well - was just reading back to comments about Murphy. Yes, he's limited in some areas but excellent in others and it's down to a manager to minimise the weaknesses and make the best of the strengths as long as they are putting in the effort and have the right attitude. Which Murphy does and the likes of Howe and Rafa can get the best of.

 

Think we have a really strong right side now, purely because Murphy isn't just an impact sub and offers real threat.

[duo]

If he hadn't stayed when we went down we'd probably still be in the championship 

[Facundo Ferreyra]

Love Rafa. Boils my piss when people say he jumped ship at the first opportunity to get more money.

[SAK]

Wonder if he’d take a job as a director of football with us. Organise academy. , scouting, medicine, contract and transfer negotiations?

[Optimistic Nut]

Such an important man in our history. The first time promotion, comfy mid-table finishes and the way he hooked a lot of fans back in, made us the sort of club PIF would find attractive to buy and showcased a bit of the potential this club could become.

 

I don't think they touch a Pardew, McClaren, Bruce (if no Rafa before him) NUFC which was empty. 

[ikri]

3 minutes ago, SAK said:

Wonder if he’d take a job as a director of football with us. Organise academy. , scouting, medicine, contract and transfer negotiations?

 

Having an experienced head coach doing that job is always a huge risk.  People would always be second guessing the manager's decisions and after every loss you'd have people saying well, Rafa would have done differently.

It only works when the DoF wasn't as good a manager as the head coach.

[Stifler]

51 minutes ago, duo said:

If he hadn't stayed when we went down we'd probably still be in the championship 

Probably just as likely that we went down further into League One.

If we never got took over when Bruce was in charge, we were doing a double dip.

[Menace]

31 minutes ago, SAK said:

Wonder if he’d take a job as a director of football with us. Organise academy. , scouting, medicine, contract and transfer negotiations?

 

I think the games moved on a lot for him, loved the man but we must move on

[Kaizero]

1 hour ago, Ben said:

In what capacity was he there last night ? 

 

One of my niche pet peeves is how ex-managers apparently can't go watch football matches in person just because they want to watch a match like the rest of us. They always have to be present "for a reason", for some reason  Granted, there's of course time's when the timing would be all wrong – like if a manager at one of the clubs playing is known to be under pressure and similar as if they weren't actually in the mix to replace that manager it'd be kind of poor taste by them to attend as they'll know it'd do nothing but put their colleague under even more pressure from fans/media. But when they're unemployed, and perhaps even have been unemployed for some time – they should be allowed to be seen at a match without having any other reason for being there than "wanting to watch the match", imo.

[GideonShandy]

Panathinaikos.

 

Good luck.

[El Prontonise]

Ohh rafa.

[andyman]

He just can't stay away, can he  Love him to bits. Hopefully he does well there!

[andycap]

Thought there was talk of it been between him and ange for forest. Should've held his horses. 

[Paully]

 

[Dr.Spaceman]

Really hope it works out for him 

[Jewel]

Hope he does well there. He's got his work cut out, though. Panathinaikos are an absolute shambles these days.

[HawK]

Those fans are something else tbh

[Fak]

Won 2-0 yesterday. First game in charge vs. Tripolis.

 

 

[ATF]

Good start...6 wins from his first 7 games, and the one loss was a game they dominated. Highlight was an away win against the then top-of-the-league PAOK.

[McDog]

Greek lad from Athens used to work in the cube right next to me. Good guy. He was a huge Panathinaikos fan.

[Lucky]

On 24/10/2025 at 10:09, HawK said:

Those fans are something else tbh

Is that all just an ultra thing? Always seems like a few ringleaders running the show. Would love  to see noise like that at British clubs but not a fan of that whole gang mentality.

[NSG]

Nothing will ever beat the “Welcome to Hell” from Olympiacos, only for us to turn up and slap them silly.

[Heron]

4 hours ago, Lucky said:

Is that all just an ultra thing? Always seems like a few ringleaders running the show. Would love  to see noise like that at British clubs but not a fan of that whole gang mentality.

I guess there are ring leaders even at SJP. Those with the loudest voices/who care the least about what they look like tend to start the songs. I think the difference in the UK though is that it is very reactive or provocative or influenced/influential of what's on the pitch. Ultras on the continent are more coordinated and actually its more like a music gig that sits beside the pitch with little relevance to the game, other than when a goal is scored. We have seen it since the CL. Ultra groups just bang the same drum all game and nothing changes. At least in England it ebbs and flows.

 

I also feel there's a lot more variety to songs here in the UK. Speaking with Canadian in laws and even my Italian brother in law they find it hilarious that we sing about Coloccini, shagging our wives and his curly hair for example.

 

I know there's always a desire to sing for 90minutes but I truly believe it's better that it ebbs and flows. The atmosphere can be taken for granted if its a constant noise for 90mins. My Dad used to tell me to use my voice wisely at the stadium - don't sing at the wrong times. Pick the right song for the right times - and he is 100% right. Singing the Blaydon Races when the opposition has a corner for example - is just stupid. If they score it falls flat, it's too long, etc. Where as a quick "United, United" or "Toon Toon, Black and White army" might be better to encourage rather than celebrate (albeit not in that same scenario).

 

Timing the song is also important - listen for what is going on around you and join in rather than compete or if you know you can drown it out and get something better going just go for it.

 

I know this all sounds canny extreme but it's true, and without wanting to sound arrogant has proven to be successful for me in the corner (and beyond).

 

This all being said - I love all of the flag waving/tifo/unity and of course volume generated which is night and day from the sanitised shite we now have here.

 

 

Edited November 29, 2025 by Heron