MAYBE I should be full of more joy then I am. We thrashed the weakened assortment of players put before us by the might of Swansea, then we schooled Zenit St Petersburg at Anfield; but I’m struggling to muster up any real joy.
The green shoots of slow recovery are there to be seen but life is short. The balance between patience and hair trigger reaction is a tricky one.
Liverpool FC have exited three cups with weakened teams.
Rodgers likes players he has worked with before to the extent he has bought players Joe Allen and Fabio Borini for inflated prices and wanted Gylfi Þór Sigurðsson (but the player chose to go elsewhere for the money). Now he is being heavily linked with Ashley Williams and Michael Vorm, and again, it’s for inflated prices.
In my opinion Rogers likes to buy those he knows; his preference for this is a little too heavy for my liking. Unless you count possibly spending £8.5million for a star with acknowledged pedigree – once called ‘the future of Inter Milan’ – it suggests to me that he doesn’t have an eye for a player, or at least a decent scouting set-up. Newcastle and Swansea have real scouts and/or managers with an eye for a player.
Under King Kenny we got to two finals, won one, just missed out on the FA Cup and finishing sixth in the league, and in my opinion we were better off. That wasn’t good enough. We were playing attacking football and Andy Carroll started to look like a real player – that wasn’t good enough. How does our current situation of less achievement and the same sort of attacking football differ?
Rodgers doesn’t feel like he’s cut from the Liverpool cloth. Rodgers defending of his old players and club whenever they are in trouble, be they wrong or right, even against Liverpool shows he’s not really one of us in my opinion. I just can’t get my head round that. Ashley Williams wanted to punch Suarez and Rodgers says I’m sure he didn’t mean it! No Rodgers, you say ‘how dare you’, and complain to the media and FA regarding a lack of professionalism.
[ad_pod id=”unruly-video” align=”center”]
If the shoe was on the other foot and Suarez had declared interest in physically assaulting Mr Williams then he’d be paying a fine, serving a suspension, offering numerous apologies and you can bet Michael Laudrup would complain, not just say ‘he didn’t mean it’!
Rafael Benitez is showing he can work with crazy owners and had learned lessons. Unashamedly, I want Rafa back. This new, improved Rafa will still have off days against weaker opposition, but in my opinion not as many as Brendan Rodgers.
FSG, please listen. Rafa is Liverpool through and through. He should never have left. He has been overlooked twice but please don’t make it thrice. Bring back Rafa ASAP.
I see the argument to give Rodgers more time but life is short. Stevie G isn’t getting any younger! Those who work out nowadays tend to hit the ground running. Fergy did what he did at the beginning but no one else has had that sort of start and come good, at least no one in the Premiership era.
Rafa will be free to sign and is still one of the top managers in the world. He’s learnt from errors and is now Rafa 4.0. He will not have any contractual costs to pay existing employers.
Rafa 1.0 managed a promotion and relegation with Extremadura. He improved; Rafa 2.0 succeeded at Valencia. He again improved; Rafa 3.0 succeeded at Liverpool, but started to falter and ultimately failed at Inter Milan. After a few years he has emerged from his cocoon with Chelsea as the new and enhanced Rafa 4.0.
If Rafa 4.0 can work with Roman Abramovich then he can work with FSG and maybe, teach them how a football club should be run.
This is a strange rare time when looking back is the way forward.
Bring back Rafa – in Rafa we still trust!
[ad_pod id=’DFP-MPU’ align=’right’]
Live4Liverpool is recruiting columnists. For further info contact the site editor at live4liverpool@snack-media.com
Follow us on Twitter here: @live4Liverpool and ‘Like’ us on Facebook
The answer is Mourinho… FSG need to do everything in their power to bring Mourinho in! He loves the fans, loves the club, and he will get us back where we should be! Pay him £1m a month, whatever, over three years it will still be cheaper than Carroll!
Yes yrs yes yes yes . It would put our club right back up there in one swoop . This will be FSGs bbiggest mistake if they don’t try
1. They’ll never bring Rafa back. Didn’t even get a look in last summer so why would he now. They want a new young progressive manager whether he will work out or not is yet to be seem but there is no way they’d consider Rafa again.
2. Liverpool will find it increasingly difficult with such a large percentage of unsupportive fans like the ones above. Sack Rafa. Sack Hodgson. Sack Kenny. Sack Rogers. Sell Carrol. Sell Lucas. Sell Henderson…. Etc etc etc. the impatience and unsupportivness can only be negative for the club. You might THINK you know best from you vast experience in FIFA and Football manager but your views are not going to sway the owners or the club, so either support your club and give positive realistic creative criticism, or your probably better off supporting Chelsea or Man City who either sack their managers every season and buy their success. You’ll probably be happier.
We are better off without idiot pathetic fools like you , who are happy to stick with a championship manager who has given us our worst season in 60 years.
I’m 52 and a season ticket holder and this season has been a disgrace for a club of Liverpools stature .
We will get Rodgers out – with or without the armchair fools like you
Agreed. I don’t understand how people don’t understand. It’s ridiculous and the fans are even more dumb for supporting this article. Rafa to Madrid!!
Only dumb fans round here are dreamers like you
ABR . Anyone but Rogers
ABR . Anyone but Rogers . Get Rafa back
Anyone but Rogers . Get Rafa back
LOL! Bring back Rafa and then what? Bring back Houllier followed by Roy Evans and then why not give Souness another go! Move on for the sake of the club. Brenda will go soon enough the way he’s going but it has to be a fresh new chapter with a new man at the helm next year.
Thank you for the much needed dose of reality. This is up there with the most deluded articles to be written regarding our club. I advise the author not to quit your day job but to quit writing tosh. Andy Carroll was a £35 mil mistake anyone who can’t see that not only does he not fit into the current style of play he never did with the latter. I quote ” I see the argument to give Rodgers more time but life is short. Steve G isn’t getting any younger!”….the point of the statement eludes me. Never mind. But honestly to even suggest that Rafa could turn this ship around any faster than Rodgers is nonsense. He has some of Europes top talents at his disposal at Chelsea and hasn’t done anything to convince he’s changed or proved either him or his current Club. Quit being deluded and get behind your manager.
What a dumb deluded comment . To suggest that a proven highly respected experienced top manager like Benitez is not more likely to turn pool around than an inexperienced novice whohas already failed miserably , is nonsense
Quit being deluded. And stop supporting a manager who is holding us back
Delusion is thinking a failure like BR could gain any success , he has been a disaster from day 1
Mate, I’d never quit the day job. I don’t wish ill on BR but feel RB would do better. He’s got unfinished business.
Excellent article vikas .you talk a lot of sense
Rafa is free at end of season . Anything is better than the joker in charge now ,but mourinho is my first choice
Mourinho is every club, supporter n chairman’s first choice. Chelsea remember Rafa’s words when he n Mourinho had their spats n hold it against him but we would not mind if JM joined us. Funny old world.
I would employ a carboard box ahead of Rodgers, at least it has a use. I have supported Liverpool for 50 years and regard Rafa as a great manage; I would welcome him back. Liverpool became UEFA’s number one rated club under him. Under Rodgers we a laughing stock in comparison.
Rafa made mistakes under the back drop of crazy boardroom crap. With real support I think he’d do even better second time around.
Rodgers
Is worthless manager , what did he win to become LFC coach .
8 months proves hes not good enough, we 8th , my good ,sure Rafa is a better option ,,
please no more british coaches or players ,enough is enough.
Malaga coach is a great option for us Palegrini
Great article , good points and all true . In my opinion Rodgers must go , but while i would like to see Rafa back , i feel that Jose Mourinho has to be top of our list . We should move heaven and earth to get him …. a manager like that would make Suarez want tostay
Absolutely!! Rafa is a more achievable target and in my opinion has more loyalty. He will stay longer then 2-3yrs providing real stability and success.
Benitez would be perfect , to those of you with short memories , here are some examples
– won champions league with very poor weak squad , we only had 1 striker most of season
– signed some greats in Torres , Alonso , Reina ,etc etc ( i know he signed some duds too )
– Real Madrid 5-0 on agg . Barcelona 2-0 at Nou camp
– Man U 4-1
– 2 CL finals & FA Cup
– Best team in europe 2009
– Closest we have come to PL in over 20 years
– He stuck up for us and LFC
– All that plus more , with a much smaller budget than Chelsea and Man U
Rodgers can NOT even win 1 game against any decent team , let alone Barca or Real
-Rodgers is a buffoon who insults and make scapegoats out of his own players in public
-Rodgers summer signings are ALL rubbish
– Rodgers has won nothing and achieved nothing in his career
– Rodgers has inflicted our worst season in over 50 years on us
– Rodgers MUST GO
Joe Fagan won more trophies in ONE season than fatty Rafa did in SIX YEARS. You do the maths, u ijiat.
Not true . Benitez won 6 trophies . And Fagan won 3 . Do the math
Benitez won 1 CL and 1 FA cup in SIX YEARS. Stop lying, u don’t support Liverpool.
…err , no 4 trophies actually .CL .Fa cup. Super cup and community shield . You are both wrong
If we are talking about major trophies here the answer is 2, CL and FA cup. The other tinpot one-off community shield or super cup were never regarded as major trophies.
booyah get rodgers out !!!
Welcome home Rafa !!!
Having seen Rafa on tv tonight speaking his mind . One thing is clear – FSG won’t bring Rafa back.
.. Because FSG want a puppet , they want a yesman , someone who won’t say anything bad about them , someone who will do what their told .
.. Rodgers is their bitch , their lackey .
The fans need to stand up and protest and get Rodgers sacked. Write letters, emails , post on Henry’s twitter page etc. We must do somethingto get this amateur fool out of our football club
I’m agree but still can’t personally start start a campaign against Rodgers. FSG need n watch a puppet is true but good football managers aren’t ever puppets. Ferguson, Wenger, mourino, Mancini aren’t puppets!
What a totally silly article. Even worse, ignorant comments. I understand that’s your opinion but we need to support our manager. If we keep attacking him, what makes us any different from Chelsea fans?
Josemi, Nunez (8.5 plus Owen), Voronin, Dossena, Aquilani, N’gog, Pelegrino, Morientes, just to name a few Rafa signings.
He wanted to sell Alonso and buy Garath Barry. I do think Rafa is a LFC legend but we can’t be nostalgic all the time. What if Rafa comes and it doesn’t work out? We need to give Rodgers time, and I’m not talking about 2/3 years, I’m talking about 7/8. Because he is the way forward. Man City took 4 years to go from mediocre to champions. They spent so much money, had so much losses within that period. Our club don’t want the losses. Business wise, it’s stupid. It would breach future financial control. We don’t have that much money so it might take us twice the time. But the more we support our manager, the easier it will be for us and the easier for him and that means easier for the team. We need to support our manager because stability is the foundation for success. Look at Chelsea for spending lots on players. When they grow old, you need to spend again. That will happen to City. Rafa spent a lot. It was well documented that he didn’t get money from the owners but if he saves the 2 and 3 million signings he made, we could’ve bought decent signings. Not to mention Robbie Keane.
Supporting a poor clueless manager is counter-productive. We need Rodgers out.
I suppose you wanted hodgson given more time too ?
Simple – good manager gets results. Rodgers has worst record of all Liverpool managers for last 50 year’s
Rodgers is a poor manager .get rid
Is it because you can’t handle the simple facts? Maybe you should support Chelsea and when Rodgers brings LFC back, you can come crawling back claiming to be a die hard LFC fan.
Fools like u should support Chelsea or whoever instead of tellin people how to support.
Your just a deluded kid
If you love Rafa so much then maybe YOU should support Chelsea where the fatty is at right now.
Plus 7 to 8 years f****ng hell . You are insane ! Get lost fool
Lol . You must be a Manc . Who else would want to inflict 8 more years of our worst ever manager on us.
Really . You are . Aren’t you ? Stick to your own sites instead of winding us up
And when Rafa messes up, what will you say?
I’ll say at least we didn’t give that useless dope Rodgers more time. You really are a Manc or blue fan
Lol good point.
Did those supporting out of his depth Rodgers want to also give Hodgson 7-8 more years???
Rafa come home / rogers fook off
Amen!
Rafa was good. But don’t say he made a couple bad signings. He bought 76 players during his tenure from 04 to 2010. How much did he spend? 229 million.
i’m totally with you lol- regarding time I wood only give him 2/3 years only though. Thatshoud be enough time. I agree all managers make bad decisions and have tething problems. Bt is only his first year. I if he continues anther season then go. If we keep changing where is the stability. We need to take a step back o take 2 forward. The last 20 years we have not had enough good continuity. Always fighting for4th , we are all Liverpool fans and want to be winning silverware but this time around we got a eat humble pie.
That’s just nonsense and silly .Liverpool has always had continuity and stability last 20 year’s. And it’s got us nowhere
Your talking bull
Seems to me that we have gotten worse each and every year since Rafa was removed.
It’s continuing to get worse with Rodgers
Rafa left us with sh* like Reina. JOHNSON, Agger and Lucas, four years later we are still struggling with these donkeys.
People say “oooh we don’t want ti be like city or chelsea changing manager every 6 months ” LOL . Why ? I would rather be where they are than mediocre like we are now
At least city and chelsea have high standards the manager must live up to . We seemed to have settled for being mediocre.
If a manager does a good job , signs good players , and gets good results – keep him
Rodgers has been poor in every way. Mostly signed rubbish players , had no good results against top teams , given us our worst season in living memory – sack him
They have won things, that’s the point. Keeping with a manager alone isn’t the point. If chop n change leads to the premiership quicker then that’s the way to go.