Awrence

I blame Edward Bernays...

This content is not viewable to guests.

This content is not viewable to guests.

Did anyone else think that the England Fans T-shirts advertised to the right of this article were being ironic?!

This content is not viewable to guests.

This appeared in the BBC Rumour Mill : Crystal Palace manager Neil Warnock has blasted Rafael Benitez for refusing to allow loanee Besian Idrizaj to return to Anfield. (The Star) Anyone know anything about it?

hehehe that got a big lol in this house!

This content is not viewable to guests.

This content is not viewable to guests.

This content is not viewable to guests.

This content is not viewable to guests.

This content is not viewable to guests.

This content is not viewable to guests.

This content is not viewable to guests.

I never thought watching a Liverpool victory montage (sky sports) to "Livin' on a Prayer" could move me so much

I agree completely. Football is a social phenomenon and should be treated as such. I also agree with Rafa making a stand against the attempted corruption of this, but at the same time I have to be realistic and see that compromise is the only way forward. I just pray that Rafa sees it this way too.

"Kaizza" never wears shirts or ties, let alone ones that clash horribly. He also has a rather fetching crop of light brown hair, and not some horrific, balding, grey faux-afro monstrosity.

I find it very difficult to explain(!), but I think that T&G are putting their efforts to keep Rafa above the strength of the squad. True we need squad cover in the short term, but in the long term we need Rafa, and I think they agree. Addressing the short term problem contradicts the long term objective! I also think that this fits in with my belief that they are aware of how good Rafa is. Sacrifice is a very strange concept because there is no real place for it in the human psyche. I don't like the idea of football being a business at all and if we could make it so that Rafa was some sort of feudal leader of LFC then I would be very happy indeed, although I do worry that he is all too capable of overstretching himself. T&G obviously have their own ideas about how to run a club, and seem to want to Rafa to fit in, but it is causing problems because Rafa wants more than they are willing to give. (I'm assuming that they want someone to handle the business side of transfers, but the "coach" will identify what players he wants). Earlier on in this thread I used the quote "If you have them by their balls, their hearts and minds will follow" and I posted it because it reminded me of your last point. It's a sad situation but, in the context of keeping the manager, there is little point in anti-owner activity. They simply will not budge, and they don't have to. They have our balls! The plan of action I am considering is full on armed revolution. We use the period between now and when T&G get here to gather forces and acquire arms. Then we forcibly retain control of the club, declare Anfield an independent entity and install Rafa as our feudal overlord. Now that would be a rafalution!

I think that's exactly the point, it's not his job as the new owners see it. T&G are trying to establish a business structure at the club where Rafa is expected to name the players he wants, but not go after them. They already have someone in place to do that. If Rafa is ignoring this structure then I think that he is getting to big for his boots.

IMO Rafa has been getting too big for his boots and this is the perfect way to remind him of his position. I don't think they would adopt this strategy if we needed to get key players in, because that would harm the club. If they came over to sort out the problem immediately it would validate Rafa's current state of self importance. T&G aren't idiots. They know how good Rafa is. I believe this delay is not a stay of execution, but a imposed period of self reflection for Rafa. The only way this situation will resolve itself is if Rafa backs down and realises that he is probably taking on a bit too much. T&G are giving him every opportunity to do so. Football is a business and Rafa does not, and never will, own the club. A lot of people have been asking where George is and I think the answer to that is that the bad cop is needed now. If (and hopefully when) reconciliation is achieved, the good cop will come out. In a strange way I think all this talk of loud, unquestioned support for Rafa might not help him at all. Rafa needs to be told that we love him, we want him to stay, but we also know that if he screws with the owners he isn't going to be here much longer, and that would break our hearts.

It seems Rafa has been trying to negotiate transfers on his own, even though there is someone already in place to do that (regardless of how incompetent that person may be). He's also partly responsible for losing his assistant manager without really finding a replacement for him, and has seemingly just taken on a lot of his work. When the owners of the club try to rein him in, he fights back in quite a childish way. Isn't that someone acting as though he is bigger than the club? I think Tetti's comment about the beard was possibly the most insightful comment in a 100 and something page thread. I think this feeling that he was getting a little too big for his boots was echoed the Spanish sky reporter. I think he's got a little power drunk managing a club with such a colossal standing, all of which is vindicated by the fact that the fans worship him like a god. The problem is that he doesn't own the club. He can wrap himself up in all things LFC, but he can never own the club, and consequently must heed to the real owners. In a perfect world I would have Rafa become all things LFC because he would take us on to great things. My ideal outcome is that the owners remind him of his place and he continues to do a great job for us, and maybe this game of brinkmanship is designed to do exactly that. If he isn't willing to return to his allotted roll in the structure then he is unwilling to accept the fact that LFC is a business, has owners, and is acting in a way that is "bigger than the club".

We do worship him like a god, and I doubt he has experienced anything like that before...

"If you have them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow" I just plain don't want to see Rafa go. I think he is great!

This content is not viewable to guests.

This content is not viewable to guests.