IgPig

If Rafa goes to Madrid in the short term one of 2 things is true:- 1) Our senior management (i.e. Parry) is as f***ed up as some on various message boards would have you believe 2) Everything I have read about Rafa being a thoughtful, intelligent, unemotional man is a lie. He is a fool.

I see. You want to express yourself. Go for it.

I am confident that over the course of the next few seasons whether we finish 2nd or 3rd this season will not matter. I can swallow my pride - i'd rather win trophies.

why do you press enter instead of letting the cursor go to the end of the line?

Beyond the satisfaction of getting ahead of the mancs I really don't care if we finish 2nd or 3rd now (assuming that is going to be the lowest we finish). We're not going to win it, and the only benefit of getting 2nd is automatic qualification for the CL. We'll end up playing Dynamo Dogs**** of Uzbekistan if we finish 3rd anyway, so that's largely irrelevant. Any idiot can see we're closer to Chelsea than the Mancs at the minute, and unless things go t*** up in the summer, that gap is only going to widen. Especially since the drunkard in charge of the Mancs is hellbent on bringing in krap players and alienating the better ones. Lets win number 6, or the FA Cup, they mean more than the difference between 2nd and third.

irrelevant.

Kuntkrap played really well tonight. Looks like we have one position where bringing in the back up doesn't degrade the team.

Was suprised he wasn't on the bench at least. Maybe Rafa thinks he can afford to lose Luis at the end of the season given he would still command a reasonable fee? get some money for Luis to put toward a top class striker?

no

Had they done so, he probably wouldn't have left - it was down to Valencia. He was obviously upset at having to leave. Hopefully, we'd do/are doing a hell of a lot more to keep him happy, and make him want to stay.

i thought it was quite dull actually. but I guess you probably had to be there. If anyone wants a copy, you can have mine for a fiver including postage!

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Hope we can hold on to him. As the article states he's very important to Rafa - something backed up by comments in any of the books released since the CL win.

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Have you read Ballague's book? It says nothing of the sort - and was done with the cooperation of Rafa. Also, at the AGM last night Parry admitted the deal for Cisse was done a year beforehand, so whether Rafa rated him or not is a moot point, because he was coming regardless. Quotes from Ballagues books re Cisse Bascombe on Houlliers departure "...If Rafa had £40m quid, he wouldn't have signed Djibril Cisse with all due respect!" Ballague on the away victory Vs Fulham last season "...during those first few months, Benitez often stood on the touchline in a state of near despair. Djibril Cisse seemed to be doing lots ofbasic things wrong. Rafa had to explain to him the correct way to angle his run to beat the offside trap for instance." I cannot be bothered looking for it, but in one of the books (may have been the biography) it is made emphatically clear that Rafa would not have spent £14m on Cisse, but had no choice in the signing so did his best to make the best of it - hence the comments about his scouts at Valencia suggesting they would win the league every year if they had him. And don't tell me you're comparing Cisse to Ronaldinho? I don't enjoy arguing that any player of ours is not up to the job being asked of him, but Cisse quite obviously isn't.

how many of those goals were in the league/cl proper/fa cup/league cup rather than super cup or cl qualifying rounds? Genuine question.

sean dundee always gets on these lists doesn't he.

not good news for us really. We need him to go to the world cup and do well, so we can get a decent amount of money for him.

Really looking forward to seeing him play again.

I wouldn't waste your time arguing about it, people. He'll be gone in the summer anyway. ....and if you've got Cisse in your user name, its obvious why your arguing for him, and its nothing to do with his (lack of) ability

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seems to no one really knows too much because of the swelling and bruising and theres a lot of guesswork at the moment. hopefully, once all that's gone it'll be minor.

I think we looked at him a few years ago, if I remember correctly. Not sure he'd improve us that much really - always thought he was just a bit of a sprinter. Goal last night was class though.

DOB 22 Sep 1976 So not 30 till September. If he's motivated I'd say he'll score goals for us and do well. I am not sure he is though really - at least he doesn't give the impression of being so.

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