Rafael "Rafa" Benítez Maudes

Moores was shit and no matter how he tries to dress it up he sold to the worst new owners for LFC for the best deal for him. He’d obviously already determined that he needed to sell, but the drive to fund the team properly, especially whilst we had a world class manager, did make it an urgent need. If it had of been Klopp back then I doubt it would have felt so urgent. I only brought this up because someone said it was fine between Rafa and the recruitment situation before the criminals came in. It wasn’t.

The level of exaggeration you tend to come up with never ceases to astound me.

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Except for Valencia he never wins the League, that reassuring if he signs with Everton. :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

Moore’s legacy is a man out of his depth in the wrong era.

The problem was not that he did not have deep enough pockets. The problem was that he thought he needed to. United we’re singing £300M sponsorship deals with Nike. We were singing £100M ones with Reebok.

The club had stagnated off the pitch, which meant it had stagnated on it. It’s remarkable the success we did have (lucky with some great youngsters). As well as some very good managers.

The pressure did not come from Rafa but the other shareholders. They could see the club falling further and further behind.

This give some of the background to the hostilities at the time

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This is a serious mindf*ck. How can you hate a club but love it’s manager? Please don’t do this Rafa…

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That is a very good assessment of Rafa. I do remember Gerrard appreciating Rafa later on, he made Gerrard a better footballer. Carragher also said, he became a better footballer because of Rafa, but he looked to Houiller as a father figure.

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Are you referring to me?

This thread reminds me of the glory days of TIA. The heated debates had over Rafa :sweat_smile:

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Just don’t mention a certain Mr Leiva… :eyes:

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Omg! Don’t mention those two threads, we had a Lucas member from TIA. It was like guerilla warfare from the two camps.

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GIF by Liverpool FC

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I’ll kick it off again then, by saying, I quite liked Lucas Leiva and was sorry to see him go.

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So much bullshit in this. He inherited an aging squad at Inter that needed replacing, as evidenced by the fact that they were complete shite for a few seasons after. Just take a look at the squad listed here: 2010–11 Inter Milan season - Wikipedia

Even Gerrard has acknowledged that the “man management issues” were more down to the fact that he doesn’t mollycoddle his players, and that Gerrard’s own approach to man management is largely modeled off Rafa.

He doesn’t even need the open chequebook you’re suggesting, or 100% control over who is bought or sold. His most famous quote with regards to this issue was “I was hoping for a sofa and they’ve brought me a lamp” because he needed a defender but the board bought a winger. I bet he’d be dreaming of being in Jürgen’s position with an actually decent recruiting team.

But anything for the anti-Rafa agenda eh?

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It’s not like Rafa didn’t make mistakes. He did do his share of mistakes while at the club. A certain Xabi Alonso mis-step being the first major one. If we look back at Klopp’s reign, you’ll probably find mistakes as well from his side.

But overall , Rafa was good for the club. Can’t say that Moores had to sell out to H&G because of the demands of Rafa Benitez.

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Klopp might joke around etc etc and probably is “friendlier” to the players than Rafa but he will discipline the players when he has to as well.

I liked Lucas too, he was one of my all time favourites. He spent 10 years of his Liverpool, he worked worked so hard for the club. I hope comes back in an Ambassadorial role, maybe.
I was so sad to leave, but he had to, but I am happy for him he is doing well in Italy.

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FWIW , I hope Moshiri has a change of heart after listening to keys and gray and decides to give it to Big Dunc instead.

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Not specifically but amongst others, yes, and I have no qualms about doing so. The tarnishing of Rafa’s reputation by the media and the narratives that have come after is criminal in my opinion and more care should be taken by those who profess to love him on one hand and then repeat exactly the false narrative that has sprung up around him on the other.

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Doesn’t bother me at all if Rafa goes there. He’ll always be a LFC legend for what he did for us but he is well past his best. He’s now only taking jobs for the money i.e. China and this is another one where the first consideration is the financial benefit and maybe a close second is that he can help Montse with the shopping. It’s very similar to the Ancelotti appointment. A top manager who is on the wane and looking for a big pay day. Hope Everton get many more such managers.

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The only club Rafa has really failed in was Real Madrid. That says more about the club than it does about Rafa. You can point him under-delivering at other clubs including Liverpool , Inter Milan & Napoli (To some extent yeah , but he didn’t fail there. Under-delivering isn’t necessary a failure).