What about Rafa Benitez?

No, I’m not saying Rafa should be manager. I love Sir Dalglish much too much.

FSG must be making some plans to unveil KK as manager when the time is right. It will be bigger than the royal wedding in red households when it happens.

However, back to the point of this article: Is there a place at the LFC table for the 51 year old Rafael Benítez Maudes?

Let’s look at just one of the many positives of Rafa:

He loves the club, the people and the city. Enough said.

But there is a little more:

Rafa turns up at the memorial service for the 96 out of respect and not self-promotion. He splashes the cash he got from the H&G shite, by not wanting to take the money away from the club/community, and gave large sums of it back. Never once in 6 years did he disrespected the fans and always knew he had them on his side. Do you remember the marches and protests on his behalf? He decided to take more control of the now praised Academy so going against the traditions that had brought Carra, Stevie Owen and Fowler. More importantly, he brought back King Kenny. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Oh I forgot …..

Lest we forget, Rafa won the 5th big lady we´d all been waiting for in Istanbul and even had a play written about it. He stood up to Fergie with what the press called his ‘rant’, which he had written down calmly. He was in a no win situation with H&G and never abandoned ship or complained when they blatantly stealing the money he needed for the squad. He tried to keep the club as stable as he could so we could keep fighting on. He got us closer to the Scum than we had in donkey´s. We saw he had the stature to be compared with the great managers of our glorious past. The greatest servant of them all said this:

“My respect for Rafa will always run deep partly because he invited me back…. It took a strong man to allow a predecessor back in the building…so I admired Rafa for not worrying about the past and simply doing what he thought was best for the club.”

Read the last part again please, KK believes what Rafa did was in the interests of the club. This is the traditional Dalglish mantra. All of the positives mentioned above were in the best interests of LFC.

(I was now going to write some negatives to give a more balanced view but there are so few of them and those are tiny in comparison).

It is easy to see now that Rafa understood the values and challenges of turning the club round, but was fighting a losing battle with board and funds. He seemed to have a traditionally socialist view of his role and in my view always understood the club was not about the money or even the winning but the fans and they needed to be heard. He always stood for what he believed in and one of them was not being afraid to bring back someone who is now so central to the club´s past, present and shortly its future. Supporters all wanted KK back and it was done on Rafa´s shift. What courage, thank you once more

There is rumour of him moving to an English club. I would hate to see you in the opposition´s dugout, wouldn´t you. There must be something LFC can do he is just too valuable for our cause.

By Shaun Dowling

Fergie your time is up

There is no doubting the career and record of Sir Alex Ferguson has been outstanding and that he has made our great rivals Manchester United the dominant force in England during his twenty odd year reign. But no one can go on for ever and Fergie is touching seventy now and his loyal players that have helped bring him so much success don’t have much mileage left in the old legs as Scholes and Giggs soldier on for their General.

I think this could be the last year that Manchester United could win the League, they have more teams snapping at their heals with the likes of Spurs, Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea and now with Kenny Dalglish back at Liverpool I believe Liverpool will be a contender next year.

Dalglish was the last Liverpool manager to bring the League title to Anfield and there is a feeling that he has unfinished business. Since his return to the Anfield hot seat Dalglish has made a drastic difference to Liverpool’s fortunes, with talk of relegation not so long ago, people are talking of finishing in the top four now. Basically Dalglish has the same players Rafa and Hodgson struggled with over the last 18 months, but he is getting the best out of them. Dalglish was dealt a blow with the loss of star striker Torres to Chelsea but Dalglish moved swiftly bringing in Luis Suarez from Ajax and Andy Carroll from Newcastle.

Memories of his first spell in charge as he brought in great attacking players with the likes of Barnes, Beardsley and John Aldridge. Dalglish and Liverpool know that this season was one where silverware was virtually a lost cause other than the involvement in the less prestigous Europa League. But Dalglish has brought belief  back to the club with a good run of form and great wins at Chelsea and more recently at home to Manchester United.

I’m sure Dalglish will get the Liverpool job on a permanent basis sooner rather than later and this summer there will be many comings and goings at Anfield with an exciting future ahead for Liverpool. Dalglish will rectify the problem positions in the team and will bring in the right players to improve the team.

So Fergie better get his 19th League title wrapped up this year because now that the King is back this old Sir may have to bow to him. Long live the King.

YNWA

Jamie McLaughlin   blog at http://theliverword.blogspot.com/

The Daily Antoine: 29th Apr 2011 – Liverpool F.C. News update

Congratulations to Prince William & Kate Middleton.

A great book about the Epic Swindle has gone on sale more…
(Great stuff read it)

Kenny believes that Joe Cole’s goal might resurrect his LFC career more…
(We can all hope)

The King is not talking about Summer plans more…
(The Liverpool Way)

However Cole is being linked with QPR more…
(Back to London huh?)

Andy Carroll is still doubtful for Sunday more…
(I think Kenny will rest him)

Axel Witsel is being linked by Talksport more…
(They have been on a roll lately, reading the book of CaughtOffside?)

Villas-Boas has dismissed the Liverpool link more…
(Excellent, we are keeping Kenny) 

On Twitter @empireofthekop

The Redmen TV: Jose Mourinho’s Barca Rant (In English)

The Redmen TV: LFC’s Warrior Sports Kit Deal

The Comolli Role

By Masimba The Ace

Shankly was first interviewed for the Liverpool job in 1951
“In 1951, when I was the manager of Carlisle United, I got a telephone call from Liverpool and was asked if I’d like to be interviewed for the manager’s job. George Kay had just resigned. I stayed in Southport on the Sunday night and went to meet the Liverpool board the next day… ‘The big snag had cropped up when the Liverpool board had said the manager could put down his team for matches and the directors would scrutinize it and alter it if they wanted to. So I just said, “If I don’t pick the team, what am I manager of?” And that was that.

I was just over thirty-six years old then. I had not long finished playing and I was young and fit and ambitious. Liverpool were in the First Division. They were struggling, but there were a lot of young players knocking about the game. I could have started the job eight years earlier than I did! God Almighty, what I would have done for Liverpool then! But a manager must be a manager. He is in charge of the players and the training staff. He organizes the training and the coaching, lays down the law and picks the team. Without that he is nothing‘”

The words above were said by Bill Shankly himself. He believed that the directors should never meddle with the manager’s business. In 1951 Shankly did not get the job because the Directors had insisted on “doing the manager’s job”. It ended up costing us 8 years without Shankly magic, imagine what could have happened during those 8 years!

According to reports and stories I have read, heard and seen, Comolli will work hand in hand with King Kenny on “football issues”, for example the signing of players. My question is, what does ‘hand in hand’ mean? Does that not undermine King Kenny? Who has the final say at the end of the day, in the event that they disagree? If King Kenny wants a player and Commolli does not want him, what happens? Or if Commolli wants a player who Kenny deems unfit, surplus or who does not fit in King Kenny’s plans. What will then happen, who will win?

I am afraid that Commolli and King Kenny will end up having disagreements on who to sign and who not to sign.

As a person who browses the internet all day for LFC news, I noticed that the media seems to link King Kenny with English players or players already in the EPL. On the other hand the media links Commolli with players from other leagues. This is not always the case, but it has to be 90% true. King Kenny has been said to be interested in Young, Jarvis, Adam, Gary Cahill, Downing, Jones etc. While Commolli has been linked with Matuidi, Payet, Sahin etc. I know that they also have both been linked with the same players, but it seems as if King Kenny is strongly linked to other players whilst Commolli is strongly linked to other players. I also think Comolli is the one who is keen on Marvaeux.

It is apparent FSG firmly believe that Comolli is an important Liverpool asset and they may end up taking his side, in the event that there is a disagreement. I say this because FSG have improved Commolli’s contract before they agreed with King Kenny on his. When Commolli signed his contract, his roles were extended and he was given roles that coincide with the manager’s role before the manager even signed his contract. Hence when FSG discuss King Kenny’s contract with Kenny and his agent, they will not offer all the “managerial roles” to King Kenny. Because they would have given some of them to Commolli! Maybe that is why King Kenny’s contract is taking longer to be signed, because he is not being given full control of the team. Meaning he would be like a La liga coach, not an English league football manager. Now that sucks!!!!!!! Maybe that is the reason why FSG (or Commolli) are keeping track of Villas Boas, because they know he is a young coach who will not mind having Comolli (the meddler) around.

What has Comolli done for Liverpool of late?

Yes yes yes, he signed Carroll and Suarez. That is really great and I am really grateful for that. But Suarez had always indicated that he wanted to come to LFC and anyone handling transfers could have signed him for us, as long as they paid what Ajax wanted. But Comolli took too long to complete this signing. Maybe if we had signed Suarez earlier, a certain traitor could have stayed for longer. Maybe our results could have been different, maybe we would not have lost to WBA and other lower teams. I FIRMLY BELIEVE THAT COMOLLI LET US DOWN BY TAKING TOO LONG TO SIGN SUAREZ. Because Ajax wanted to sell and Suarez wanted to come to LFC. Commolli was offering 13 million pounds when Ajax made it clear they wanted 22 million.

King Kenny made it clear that he wanted to sign Charlie Adam and our Director of Football Strategy at the time did not do all he could to prise him from Blackpool. He had 50 million on the last day of the transfer window and he did not offer enough money to Blackpool. I guess that is because he was negotiating. Well if he could offer 35 million for Carroll, what was wrong with 12 million for Adam. Tottenham almost signed him that very night, they just could not do it on time. There I blame Comolli.

Before I go any further, I want to clearly state that I do not wish to undermine Damien Comolli in any way. But I just want to point out my opinion on “the Comolli role”. I am very grateful to Comolli for ‘eventually’ signing Suarez and for signing Carroll at lightning speed. On deadline day he had to react fast and effectively after we had sold Torres. And that is exactly what he did, I am quite sure Carroll was King Kenny’s decision, so its thumbs up to Comolli for going along with Kenny. At the end of the day LFC were the winners.

And Shankly…

I am quite sure Bill Shankly would never agree with “the Comolli Role” if it undermined the manager’s role in any way. He would want all the power to be given the real manager not a director. Times have changed though, but we have a culture to protect, our heritage. It is this heritage that led to the success of our beloved LFC. Shankly knew that directors must never meddle with the team, be it on who is played or who is signed. The Directors should support the manager’s decisions and the managers should in turn meet the Director’s targets. That way the club can move forward.