Tom Hicks camp denies Rafael Benitez is on the brink

[Sir X]

Tom Hicks camp denies Rafael Benitez is on the brink of leaving Liverpool




(PA)



Gillett and Hicks have been locked in talks with Benitez over a new contract






Tony Evans and Ben Smith


div#related-article-links p a, div#related-article-links p a:visited {color:#06c;}Sources close to Tom Hicks, the Liverpool co-owner, have responded with dismay to suggestions that Rafael Benitez is on the brink of leaving the club.
The Spaniard's future as manager appeared more uncertain than ever this morning, as rumours swept Madrid and Liverpool suggesting he was about to leave Anfield. Leading bookmakers suspended all bets on his future at the club, however the Hicks camp has moved swiftly to play down the reports, with sources claiming that despite the antagonism between the owners and Benitez, they will not allow the manager to walk away.
Benitez has been locked in talks over a new contract in recent months and surprised the club’s hierarchy by rejecting a fifth draft of the deal over the weekend. The Liverpool manager has less than 18 months left on his contract at Anfield and believes that if he reaches the end of the season without a commitment from Hicks and George Gillett, he would be forced to look for a new job.
The Americans agreed to offer Benitez a new contract before Christmas but the document remains unsigned. Sources close to Benitez have suggested that the Spaniard has reached agreement with the club on a number of occasions, only to find that, when the written contract arrived, it contained different terms than had been agreed verbally.
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The owners have bowed to his requests for more control over transfer policy and the youth academy, but sticking points remain about the job security of his backroom staff and his concern at the delays in the decision-making process, given the dysfunctional relationship between the owners.
Benitez began his career in coaching at the Bernabeu in 1986 and the Liverpool manager has been linked with a return to Madrid, where Juande Ramos is the incumbent. However, Ramos is a short-term appointment and is likely to be replaced in the summer.
Speculation has suggested that Kenny Dalglish, the former manager, has been approached to act in a caretaker capacity in the event of Benitez leaving, but the Scot remains a strong supporter of the Spaniard and would be unlikely to countenance the dismissal of a man who has brought the European Cup to Anfield.
The internal politics of Liverpool have been tortuous since the American owners took over and Benitez has endured a difficult relationship with Rick Parry, the chief executive. The pair have been enbroiled in a power struggle which has worn down the manager. However, Benitez believes he is right and will not depart without a fight.
Jan Molby, the former Liverpool midfielder, said he expected to remain in charge despite the rumours.
"I'd be surprised if Rafa were to walk out on Liverpool," he said. "We do know for a while he's been unhappy about certain things, but I still think it would take a big man to walk out on Liverpool at such a crucial stage of the season.
"Whereas some people are quite happy to back Rafael Benitez to be gone by the end of the week, I would rather take the odds on him being Liverpool manager next Monday.
"I heard the rumours myself last night, and they have been gathering pace, everyone's talking about it. I think the people who say it can't happen might just prove to be spot-on."

[Sir X]

Would the grass be greener with a new gaffa? Written by Tetteh Otuteye on February 23rd, 2009 You are here: Home » Comment and Opinion » Would the grass be greener with a new gaffa?</SPAN></B></B>

After our draw with City, people have started discussing who ought to replace Rafa if and when he leaves, with some even suggesting he should be sacked no later than this summer. The shocking thing for me about discussing Rafa’s replacement before the season ends (a better season than we’ve had for close to 20 years), is that it is in stark contrast to the expectations most Liverpool fans had at the beginning of the season.
And for those who say we’re only where we are this year because Chelsea and Arsenal have dropped rather than us improving, ask yourself this: why have Chelsea and Arsenal dropped this season?
Chelsea continued to have managerial instability, with their current coach only appointed until the end of the season. Hmmm. And here we are talking about sacking our coach. Ironic.
Arsenal on the other hand have suffered a major loss with the absence of Fabregas, but I don’t think that alone explains their poor record.
Everyone has noticed how the premiership has become tougher. Today, 9 points (3 wins) separates the bottom club from 11th position. 9 points seperate Stoke - a team deep in the relegation battle in 17th place - from Fulham - a team fighting for a UEFA cup spot in 8th place. United are sitting quite happily on top of the pile, but compare their performances this year to last year. Last year, United were thumping the likes of Boro, Wigan and Sunderland by 3 or 4 goal margins: Last season they won 19 games by at least a 2 goal margin, including 8 matches in which they scored 3 or more goals in comfortable wins. This year they have so far only won 8 matches by at least a 2 goal margin, and have only scored 3 or more goals in 6 premier league games to date (including the 4-3 win against Hull, by a single goal margin).
To make the point clearer, United only won 11 games by a single goal margin in last seasons’ title race. So far this year, they’ve already matched that record, with several 1-0 wins and the occasional 2-1 win.
This is solid proof that the league has gotten much tougher. Teams have gotten better at nullifying even United’s goal threats - and they have four £30M+ attackers, 3 of whom were carving up opposition at will last season, to whom they added Berbatov. These 4 magic-makers (Tevez, Ronaldo, Rooney and Berbatov) have secured many a goal out of nothing to secure a 1-0 or 2-1 win this season, in very hard fought matches (like Sunderland at home). These are the kinds of matches where we have drawn, partly because we only have 2 such players, one of whom was injured for the entire first half of the season.
Arsenal have also struggled because they have found it tougher to break these teams down. They have drawn one match more than we have, and lost 4 more than us.
Chelsea have also struggled because in addition to the league getting tougher, they’ve been experiencing a self-induced transition.
This time last season (i.e. with 12 matches left) we had 58 points. United had 69 points.We both got 28 points from the final 36 points, and we finished 11 points behind them.
This year, we are 7 points behind United.
So despite the league getting tougher for everyone, we have improved relative to the leaders of the table at this stage by 4 points. We have handled the raising standards of the premiership better than our rivals have (surpassing Arsenal and Chelsea, and closing the gap on United).
That’s progress.
Rafa has achieved season on season progression. Perhaps not in terms of silverware, because Rafa won a fair amount early on, but certainly in terms of challenging for the title and strengthening the squad. (On a side note, something similar happened to Wenger, who had 1 good season in his first 5, winning nothing in the other 4 years, while Rafa has had a CL winning season, an FA cup winning season, and even if the other final appearances don’t count, he’s had 2 silverware winning seasons, without considering the Eurpoean Supercup).
But instead of giving him time to continue to bridge the gap with United we want him fired. Instead of letting him add another match winner (or two) to Torres and Gerrard with this summer’s transfer money, we want to see him axed. Rather than speculating as to what summer acquisition(s) will bring us closer in terms of world class talent and game changers that often make the difference between 0-0 draws, and 1-0 wins, or a nervous 1-0 lead and a 2 goal cushion, we’re speculating as to which manager will replace Rafa.
And who are these replacements we’re raving about?
Let’s start with Martin O’Neill.
I have 3 very big question marks about Martin O’Neill.
One poster, GaryStew1980, sums up the first point well really well.
(1) It’s a big step up from Villa to Liverpool
“Martin O’Neill has found his niche, so to speak. It is something he has done since he made his name. He goes to clubs where pretty much anything is considered success. Since he went to Celtic (big club on the way down) he steadied the ship and got them going again; as soon as they lost the league he was out of there although with other issues (his wifes health). Now at Villa once again a big club with realistic expectations being just getting to Europe, never mind breaking into the big 4. Once again though O’Neill is in an ideal position where he isn’t expected to do any better - they have already exceeded anything they could have hoped for. I think MON is smart enough to realise that neither the Man U or Liverpool job will give him this comfort zone. He is a very smart, intelligent shrewd man.”
Now I happen to respect what O’Neill has done (especially at Celtic), but I agree with GaryStew1980 that it’s a totally different task to take a team that are fighting for an Intertoto cup spot up 3 or 4 places in the league to fight for a Champion’s League spot, vs making a team into title winners. Arsenal’s demise has helped Villa this year, but the work at Liverpool is a lot more intense with a lot more pressure than the job at Villa, and I have my doubts O’Neill could handle the expectations at Liverpool.
My second issue is regarding (2) the transition period O’Neill’s appointment would put us into:
The question over how much of a transition period a new coach would need I think boils down to how different their tactics are from their predecessor’s. You have to realise how different Rafa’s tactics are from O’Neill’s. O’Neill has relied on very pacey wingers and a big target man. Agbonlahor and Young are two of the quickest wingers in the premiership, and they were aiming for Carew in the middle and are now aiming for Heskey. So it’s fair to assume that O’Neill would require quite some time to change Rafa’s team of possession hogging, game controlling, but not the quickest attackers with no real target man, and change our style of play to suit his.
Last but not least, there’s the issue of (3) What to do when teams park the bus:
Villa sometimes play good football, and I respect O’Neill for that, but it’s easier to play that kind of football when teams try to attack you. I don’t know how well O’Neill would cope when teams show up to park the bus. He never had to deal with this at Celtic, and no team arrives at Villa to defend. It’s a totally different kettle of fish. You only have to look at Arsenal to see how their free-flowing football has struggled since the “weaker teams” started adopting increasingly defensive strategies. Would O’Neill be able to adapt to this new challenge? I have grave doubts.
I highly doubt O’Neill would do much for Liverpool, except oversee our decline. Appointing O’Neill would be like having another Roy Evans era. We’d probably play some good football, but while O’Neill was getting his team together (with a very limited transfer budget mind you), United would be growing stronger and stronger, Gerrard would be ageing, Carra would be ageing, and United would surpass our title record quite comfortably.
The disrupted continuity from Sacking Rafa and appointing O’Neill wouldn’t give us much more than some more attractive football, and, most importantly, a greater gap between us and United.
This brings us to the other name being bandied about: Jose Mourinho - a top quality coach by any stretch of the imagination. His tactics also aren’t that different from Rafa’s. His teams control possession and dictate the pace of the game as do Rafa’s, and Jose also likes to play 4-2-3-1. So arguably, Mourinho wouldn’t need a huge transition period.
But we all know about Mourinho’s ego. He would want to make changes to the team so that he could call it his own team. And it’s difficult to imagine him having anything like the Abramovich budget to spend.
But aside from that, even if we believe he is so Special that he could pull it off in very little time and without much money, you have to ask yourself this: Having been forced to end his love affair with Chelsea because of an egotistical, meddling owner, would Jose Mourinho really want to come and work for Hicks, Gillett and Rick Parry?
Can you really see that happening? With all the media circus about our ownership saga and the issues with Parry, it’s hard to imagine Mourinho wanting to deal with this mess.
Who’s left? Rijkaard? Please spare me. Why would we want to abandon a coach who is figuring out the premiership and is making steady progress, to experiment with a man who is untested in the premiership and who’s style of play is so radically different from Rafa’s that he’d require a long transition period? And Rijkaard’s man-management is quite questionable (see the saga at Barca). One can only imagine what sort of relationship he’d have with our owners. The thought is quite frightening. I can see him quitting in mid-December.
In fact, most coaches would have quit a long time ago if they had to deal with our ownership situation. But Rafa hasn’t because (as he has repeatedly said) he wants to stay and win things. He is determined to be here for many more years, because he loves the city and the club.
So is the grass really greener on the other side? Understandably, people are frustrated that we haven’t done better this season, given our league position in December. But as I’ve said elsewhere, there’s a major learning curve to becoming champions. Nobody has ever done it over night - gone from not challenging to winning. Just about every title winning team first loses a title challenge and then builds on that learning experience before becoming champions.
I hope I’ve shown that it wouldn’t make sense to sack Rafa anytime soon because:
1) We are making steady progress under him - it takes time to build a championship winning team, and we’re moving steadily along the learning curve.
2) The alternatives aren’t that great - assuming any of them would want the job (a rather hefty assumption given the uncertainty in the boardroom), there are major question-marks as to whether any of them would do better than the man we have in charge.
3) Rafa has built an excellent core of players, with 2 great game changers and a strong supporting squad, with an excellent defensive core and CM strength. The addition of a few finishing touches, one more gamechanger on a par with Torres and Gerrard or Ronaldo, Tevez, Rooney et al, and we’ll be right up there with – perhaps even ahead of – United.
So why derail the train now?

Written by Tetteh Otuteye
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I personally doubt any top line manager would come to Liverpool with the current owners and board so it’s almost irrelevant, I like Rafa yes he’s spent some money but nett not a great deal and certainly less than most. God couldn’t produce the miracle we need so why do we expect Rafa to be able too? If I am brutally honest we don’t deserve Rafa I know he makes some strange decisions but the Man City game showed to everyone how thin our squad is, our best team is a good team but when we lose two players we are dead in the water, if we lost Mascherano who do we replace him with? If Man U lost Hargreaves or Carrick they still have a £20m+ player in Anderson to slot in, there my friends is the problem not the manager

drewc on February 23, 2009 @ 6:37 pm</B>

You and me are on the same page Tetteh my friend!
Dragonshadow

Simon Pearce on February 24, 2009

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[Sir X]

Bye bye Rafa? Don’t be daft! Written by Simon Pearce on February 23rd, 2009 You are here: Home » Comment and Opinion » Bye bye Rafa? Don’t be daft!</SPAN></B></B>

How many times have we gone through this in the last few years?
It’s not fair on us the supporters, the players, or on Rafa himself. In fact as far as I’m concerned, it’s almost disrespectful.
Rafael Benitez is still the manager of Liverpool FC. He has made no noises about wanting to quit, and he hasn’t actually walked out. What you saw or heard yesterday was all media speculation. All because he hasn’t yet signed the new contract offered to him. It’s not the first time someone has turned down a contract, and I’m sure it wont be the last.
You don’t accept something if you’re not happy with it. You take it back to the board and negotiate. That’s all Rafa’s doing. He said days ago that he’d rather this was sorted in the summer. I don’t think Rafa has any intention of walking. He’ll sign the contract when he’s happy with the terms offered, and when he’s good and ready. Not before.
He’s also stated many times over that he’s more than happy here on Merseyside. His wife doesn’t want to move back to Spain, and his daughter speaks better English than he does! Rafa’s got his eyes set on being here for a long long time yet, so don’t believe all the media claptrap that’s being spouted currently. Please.
You wouldn’t bury a man before he’s actually dead. So why look for someone to fill a job that isn’t actually vacant? Why look for a new manager when we already have one? Now is not the time for all this speculation. That time will come if or when Rafa actually walks or is pushed.
But now is the time to get behind the team in the fight for the title. In the fight for the Champions League. And that team includes Rafael Benitez. As for now, he’s still one of us. He’s still our manager. And instead of sticking the knife in already, we should be behind him all the way.
In Rafa I trust. YNWA