Congratulations to Rafa for being named manager of the month for October. We won four straight matches in October and we are currently joint top of the Premiership. “I am really pleased to receive this on behalf of my staff because they are doing very well. People like Sammy Lee, Mauricio Pellegrino, Xavi Valero and Paco Di Miguel,” said Benitez today. “It’s important for the staff and it’s important because it means the team is playing well - you can’t win Manager of the Month unless the team is winning.”

Keep up the good work Rafa and lets lift the Premiership at the end of the season.

Reports over the last 48 hours are suggesting that Juventus are lining up Rafa Benitez as their new manager. Now our American owners have not given Rafa a new contract and if I were Rafa I would be worried as to why are they not giving me a new contract. It is no secret that the owners approached Klismann once upon a time and that left a bad taste in Rafa’s mouth. Now with the owners not showing any sign of giving Rafa a new contract, Juventus are sniffing around for his services.

We do not need such distractions especially when we are doing so well. Honestly, right now I can not think of a better man for the job than Rafa. We need Rafa to stay and I am sure 9 / 10 of the fans will feel the same way that I do. Give Rafa a new long term contract so he can set long term plans for the club. We do not need to be chopping and changing managers. Continuity is the key to success.

RAFA—RAFAEL—RAFA—RAFAEL—RAFA—RAFAEL—RAFAEL BENITEZ!!!

Other than the original “I’m glad to be here”, Albert Riera will be introduced to Liverpool fans and media alike tomorrow morning.

Check out the Echo and official site I’m sure for the transcripts.

I’ll also be curious to see what Rafa has to say about international week, he usually is good for a quote or two.

I was looking through various things to watch on LFC TV and old matches and whatnot on the official site and got to watching Luis Garcia’s goal against Chelsea in the CL semis 04′-05′. That was a major blow to Premiership Champions Chelsea that season as they had simply blown away the league and were the class side in England at that time.

What does that have to do with anything?

Nothing really.

What I’m getting at is that I watched Jose Mourinho’s post match press conference following the 2nd leg at Anfield. If you’ve heard anything from him at all, you’ll know that he speaks of the “goal” in that match to this day. Well in between his pissing and moaning he said something that I found to be very interesting:

“We had no power. Without wingers and speed it is difficult.” Read the rest of this entry »

Liverpool FC Chief Executive Rick Parry said: “There has been a lot of comment today regarding our position with regards to Gareth Barry.

“This is not about questioning the Manager’s judgement or the ability of a particular player. The owners have clearly demonstrated throughout the year they are willing to back Rafa in the transfer market and will continue to do so.

“It is obviously the selling club’s prerogative to put whatever price they want on the player, but on this occasion Liverpool think the price quoted is too high.”

Haven’t the owners (Hicks) learned yet that going public doesn’t fix anything?  Even now we’re not saying we will or we won’t, we’re simply whining about the price, but now in the public forum.

As for saying this doesn’t imply that they are not backing Rafa, I would have to say that that’s a load of piss.  I think it’s been quite clear that Rafa wants him in the team.  I also think it’s quite clear that 18 million is a bit steep, but he’s not being bought to be sold.  He’s being bought to help us win a title, which would bring us an infinitely larger sum in the long run.  I know that that is predicated on us actually winning the league and perhaps bringing home that 6th European Cup, but I think that now is the time to take those gambles.  We have the strongest squad we’ve had in some time, our rivals have yet to seriously strengthen, and we have a manager who has shown he has a nose for winning.

Even being from America, I have to say it’s time to put up or shut up.

Otherwise, get the Yanks outta town.

*waves white flag at DIC*

Now that it looks almost certain that Gareth Barry will be remaining at Aston Villa, where does that leave us? Firstly, there are still some reports this morning that the Barry deal is still on and Barry will sign in the next 24 hours! I have realised that you can not believe anything until you see the player at Melwood training. So for now I have accepted that Barry will not be joining us. This now means that Alonso is most likely going to be staying on. Good or bad? You can decide for yourself. Personally, I am a great fan of Alonso. Yes, the last two seasons he has not been that great but he still can do a decent job for us if he gets his act together.

On the other hand, in Barry not arriving, this could signal an opportunity for Lucas or Plessis to make the central midfield position their own. They are both very talented youngsters with a bright future. I would not mind seeing Lucas play more games. He was not named Brazil’s best player for nothing. He even showed glimpses of what he can do last season. I will not forget the Merseyside derby at Goodison when he came on and played a very good game. Read the rest of this entry »

I have come across very few managers in all my years of watching soccer who conduct themselves in interviews like Rafa does. I will not forget the interview he had when there were problems with the owners and he was just saying, “My job is to coach the team.” I think ever since that time, we have all wondered what next can Rafa say in his interviews.

I was listening to his interview today after the signing of Robbie Keane and yet again, he was not answering questions directly. You have to just love Rafa for the way he seems to dodge a question and come up with an answer no one was expecting. Pretty crafty I would say. Today he was asked, “The media is speculating that the Gareth Barry deal is dead. Is that true?” Rafa answered, “I think that today we need to enjoy being able to welcome Robbie Keane here. So we will try to enjoy today.” Then he was asked, “Is the Barry deal something that might happen?” Rafa’s response, “Keane is here and I am happy.”

You can not seem to get a straight answer out of Rafa!

If you are like me, you must be wondering why Rafa does not have any money to spend this summer. So I decided to sit down and give it some thought and do some research. Firstly, you would have thought that the American owners would have given Rafa some cash to spend this summer, but they have not. Last summer, they splashed out almost £42m on Torres, Babel and Benayoun. It would have been very surprising if they were going to give Rafa another £40m to spend this summer. But truthfully, that is what they have to do if we want to challenge for honours. Just look at Chelsea and Manchester United, they basically have unlimited transfer budgets and look at how successful they have been in the last few years. Money has to be spent and unfortunately we do not have a lot of it. Read the rest of this entry »

Well it seems we’ve fallen into another pot of whatever it is we’ve been sloshing around in for the past few months. Predictably, Tottenham have gone public with their displeasure at Rafa naming Keane among his targets.

The Guardian reported this today, and to be honest it really doesn’t raise an eyebrow with me. Our current transfer policy seems to be one of public speaking. Dismissing players openly while behaving somewhat similarly with those we actually are targeting. Where this carousel ends I don’t know, but I’m certainly hoping it comes to a stop with at least 2 more signings getting off along with us.

I hope you know what all you have been stirring Rafa. No surprises please. (unless it’s Messi =P )

Well it seems that Red Nose Ferguson from Manure has decided he might be interested in bringing Rafa’s old assistant to the Theater of Illusions. (by the way, I love Kopblog’s name-calling, and have borrowed it)

One thing I don’t hear much about, I have to say, is the Man U youth program. It seems that they bring up some promising youngsters but they really have little chance to go straight into a first team where £25 million is the valuation of each position on the field. These young players go off to Sunderland or wherever and disappear into the good night.

Read the rest of this entry »