Topic: The King is gone, long live the next one and good luck...

[Juan Loco]

How would people feel about Andre Villas Boas if he could lure in Hulk and Moutinho from Porto? Hell, Raul would come back as a squad player and become the player he was with us.

I'd feel like he'd brought in money that obviously wasn't there.

[Luke17]

If where going for Luís André de Pina Cabral e Villas-Boas i'd rather we got Rafa back.

[Aigburth73]

My mate just said rafa has been contacted.

Hmmm, Aigburth73.....so that makes me 39
Fucking hell Jimmy, your keyboard skills are impressive for..........

[verbal kint]

The thing is if they ignored all fan pressure, sentiment, and what have you Rafa's record and CV still speaks for itself. There isn't anyone realistically better and available right now.

Absolutley my exact belief on the situation, if they really sit down and just look at CV's for the job for value for money, location, desire and trophys won he really should get the job, very few in the world at the minute with a CV to match his.

That is my view with sentiment left to one side.

[Xabinator]

No one "knows", but it's a fairly reasonable assumption, no?

You got the question mark in the wrong spot.

It's a fairly reasonable assumption? No.

What have FSG stated that makes it a reasonable assumption?

And for what it's worth, I wouldn't think they'd bring Rafa back because he's a fan favourite, they could bring him back because he's one of the worlds very best managers.

[AJG]

If you can't see that in our position and with our finances that a 'big name' manager would make little to no difference attracting players then well.....

As i pointed out, was Rafa a big name when he built Valencia? Was Klopp a big name when he built Dortmund? These are the examples we need to look at. Great clubs without oil rich owners who appointed excellent young driven managers to build them up and make them successful. Not clubs who have one crap season so drop in a big name and spunk £200m up in the wall in one transfer window.

I'm not even going to get into a debate with someone whos dream manager list includes Steve Bruce

[Regi]

Since when is Villas Boas a big name???

Since two seasons ago if you reside on Earth

[nicholasanthony]

Great post. Wish I had more to contribute, but it's just spot on for mine.

[hollger]

How would people feel about Andre Villas Boas if he could lure in Hulk and Moutinho from Porto? Hell, Raul would come back as a squad player and become the player he was with us.

Unless Andre is feeling spectacularly generous and somehow brings his own transfer kitty I would think that's pretty much impossible 

[Red Sox]

Well there's a fairly strong chance he could be our next manager so maybe you should go and support them

what a crock, what are you, his agent ??

[Lawnmowerman]

My mate just said rafa has been contacted.

Has your mate got a da whose name is Geppetto?

[higuaintolfc]

How would people feel about Andre Villas Boas if he could lure in Hulk and Moutinho from Porto? Hell, Raul would come back as a squad player and become the player he was with us.

Those 2 would cost a combined 50m+. I'd much rather we sign players from the Spanish league (Rafa), best league in the world. Or if we get Capello we can go into the Italian market and Spanish market since he's been there and done that too.

[Smellytrabs]

I think people need to stop buying into the media perception that Villas-Boas is a great manager. He has been in management two and half years, and so far his record looks like this:

1 Season at Acedomica - Ordinary

1 Season at Porto - Very Good

1/2 Season at Chelsea  - Fucking shambles

That to me does not look like the proven track record of a man who should be taking over at Liverpool, no matter how many hand-jobs he used to give to Mourinho in the managers office.

[Fordy]

Karl Robinson would be better than Luís André de Pina Cabral e Villas-Boas.

Luís André de Pina Cabral e Villas-Boas man management skills are god dam woeful.

We need a manager with the right management skills.

[Red Wanderer]

Yes - De Boer, Luís André de Pina Cabral e Villas-Boas, Rodgers, Martinez, Laudrup, Loew
No - Capello, Van Gaal, Deschamps, Hiddink, O'Neill

Dream World - Pep, Rafa, Klopp, Bruce

I'll just fax this over to John and Tom.

I hope you mean Ken.

[sowellred]

Maybe we send 1000 chocolate bars to the LMA. Inside 5 of them there is a gold application form......

A bit Disney but what the hell

[Wepiory]

Nothing is bigger than the club?
You're having a laugh. Clearly success is more important to the majority of our fans then tradition, loyalty and honer.

It may be a good move, only time will tell, but what is curtain is that our owners couldn't give two shits about what this club stands for.
And that is why we will fail.
Because they have betrayed us and shattered any trust we once had for them, and history shows what sort of an effect it will have on the team. When the fans don't believe the team doesn't believe.

I really hope we get Martinez. And I really hope we get relegated. Because it will show all those just how wrong they are and how wrong they have been in the past (Rafa out, Hodgson in - suck my balls you people) and maybe then their will be a glimmer of a chance that we can take our club back and do things the right way, the Liverpool way.

[Adam_LFC]

Have people forgotten how shit Luís André de Pina Cabral e Villas-Boas was at Chelsea ?  Player power my arse .....he was shite.

Ha, and I assume you think Di Matteo is a genius.

[NorthamptonKopite]

Ah right, that HUGE tough league in Portugal, what a coup. He won a title in Portugal, that's awesome. He also failed in the Premierleague, where it matters.

Yes, and won the Europa league. In his first season with a new club he won three trophies, one of them being a major European tournament. They lost two games all season. At Chelsea he didn't do an awful job as statistics prove what with him having a better points return than Di Matteo. Anyway, it's irrelevant cos' Chelsea are a club run by a Russian lunatic, with fans just as bad and players who run the squad.

I think he'd do a great job here, and would be happy if he was our next manager.

[Aigburth73]

Nothing is bigger than the club?
You're having a laugh. Clearly success is more important to the majority of our fans then tradition, loyalty and honer.

It may be a good move, only time will tell, but what is curtain is that our owners couldn't give two shits about what this club stands for.
And that is why we will fail.
Because they have betrayed us and shattered any trust we once had for them, and history shows what sort of an effect it will have on the team. When the fans don't believe the team doesn't believe.

I really hope we get Martinez. And I really hope we get relegated. Because it will show all those just how wrong they are and how wrong they have been in the past (Rafa out, Hodgson in - suck my balls you people) and maybe then their will be a glimmer of a chance that we can take our club back and do things the right way, the Liverpool way.

They're out in force today!

[Regi]

Capello? really? did u watch the last world cup?

Yes let's rule out one of the greatest managers of all time on that basis.
Genius

[higuaintolfc]

Since two seasons ago if you reside on Earth

Sorry for not following Portuguese football, I've been kinda busy with the bigger more important leagues.

[Twelfth Customer]

In terms of tactics, who do people regard as superior, Rafa or Luís André de Pina Cabral e Villas-Boas? They both have a reputation for being football obsessives, methodological and leaving no stone unturned in terms of pre-game research.

[SmallwoodRed]

Absolutley my exact belief on the situation, if they really sit down and just look at CV's for the job for value for money, location, desire and trophys won he really should get the job, very few in the world at the minute with a CV to match his.

That is my view with sentiment left to one side.

Removal of Benitez was possibly the  stupidest thing this club has ever done apart from sell to Hicks and Gillett.
I firmly believe that not reemploying would rank as as stupid.

[ruairimacliam]

Ah right, that HUGE tough league in Portugal, what a coup. He won a title in Portugal, that's awesome. He also failed in the Premierleague, where it matters.

not to mention a 88 win percentage

[It's Jimmy Corkhill]

Has your mate got a da whose name is Geppetto?

Haha, belter.

[Siannn.]

And for what it's worth, I wouldn't think they'd bring Rafa back because he's a fan favourite, they could bring him back because he's one of the worlds very best managers.

I don't disagree with that, but he is nevertheless a fan favourite and as the bickering a few pages back shows, there's still (rightfully) a lot of resentment among supporters towards the c*nts that wanted him out in the first place - c*nts who, I have no doubt, would want him out again if he didn't bring instant success. I just can't see FSG taking that risk, unfortunately.

[Get]

Did you watch the last 10 years of his management career?

yeah, and there comes a time where a manager loses it, capello did. like playing gerrard on the left.

[Alex7]

For those saying Luís André de Pina Cabral e Villas-Boas was shit in England, he was closer to Champions League qualification than their current manager, and Dalglish with us, by the way.

Cup competitions aside, of course. But he was till in both when sacked.

[Regi]

Karl Robinson would be better than Luís André de Pina Cabral e Villas-Boas.

Luís André de Pina Cabral e Villas-Boas man management skills are god dam woeful.

We need a manager with the right management skills.

Man-management not count in Portugal?

[Jagdip]

It's clear to see the only person who doesn't divide on anyone's opinion is Rafa

[Sheik_Yerbouti]

Ah right, that HUGE tough league in Portugal, what a coup. He won a title in Portugal, that's awesome. He also failed in the Premierleague, where it matters.

To be fair he took the Chelsea job at the worst possible time. All of their top players, apart from Mata who he signed, are past their prime. Drogba, Essien, Lampard, Cole and Terry and a Torres who is far from the player he was at Liverpool.

[Camarero25]

Nothing is bigger than the club?
You're having a laugh. Clearly success is more important to the majority of our fans then tradition, loyalty and honer.

It may be a good move, only time will tell, but what is curtain is that our owners couldn't give two shits about what this club stands for.
And that is why we will fail.
Because they have betrayed us and shattered any trust we once had for them, and history shows what sort of an effect it will have on the team. When the fans don't believe the team doesn't believe.

I really hope we get Martinez. And I really hope we get relegated. Because it will show all those just how wrong they are and how wrong they have been in the past (Rafa out, Hodgson in - suck my balls you people) and maybe then their will be a glimmer of a chance that we can take our club back and do things the right way, the Liverpool way.

Christ.

[HighSix]

I think people need to stop buying into the media perception that Villas-Boas is a great manager. He has been in management two and half years, and so far his record looks like this:

1 Season at Acedomica - Ordinary

1 Season at Porto - Very Good

1/2 Season at Chelsea  - Fucking shambles

That to me does not look like the proven track record of a man who should be taking over at Liverpool, no matter how many hand-jobs he used to give to Mourinho in the managers office.

Exactly, would be a big risk.

[sirjames]

In terms of tactics, who do people regard as superior, Rafa or Luís André de Pina Cabral e Villas-Boas? They both have a reputation for being football obsessives, methodological and leaving no stone unturned in terms of pre-game research.

serious?

Rafa by a country mile. European cups la liga's show this.

Luís André de Pina Cabral e Villas-Boas may become a great manager though.

[Bob Sacamano]

A year and a half on we’re without plan on the stadium, without manager, without head of communication, without a genuine CEO and without a Director of Football, a position that we’ve often been without but one they themselves we soon keen to bring in. There’s a danger in believing anything that comes out of Christian Purslow’s mouth, but so far, after a year and a half, we don’t see too far away from his comment that the best thing about FSG is that they exist.

We insist the manager deserves our patience, and rightly so (especially Kenny). I think our ownership deserves patience as well. We just sacked our DoF and our Manager...so ermm yeah we don't have one right now. Nor should we...seeing as you know....we just sacked'em.

But as we carry on ignoring the elephant in the room that perhaps FSG lack both vision and resources to move it forward

Maybe they don't. But we don't know yet.

We know nothing about what they actually want. We see them slapped on the back for being bold and free-thinking. They somehow are getting praise for removing Kenny Dalglish because they were decisive. The same thing happened with Comolli. “These FSG lot don’t fuck about, do they?” well, that is unless you feel that by sacking people they hired themselves within a year is fucking about. Kenny Dalglish, Damien Comolli, Graham Bartlett – these are all men FSG hired. They’re all men FSG fired, because they’re ruthless. They also appear to be either impatient or clueless, but they’re ruthless.

No question. They certainly look foolish having sacked the people they just hired about a year ago. Legitimate gripe.

With our first game coming up at the start of august we have two and a half months to get ourselves a director of football, conduct a proper interview process for the manager, bring in that manager, and then strengthen the squad. A skeptic could think this is a clusterfuck of a situation.

Not really. Every team encounters this situation when sacking a manager at the end of the season. The clusterfuck is cleaning house less than two years after building the house.

So whilst we’re looking for a manager, we in all likelihood, won’t be talking to Fabio Capello who is available. We will not be talking to Louis Van Gaal, who has won the league at every club he’s managed, plays great football and has been occasionally ruthless in bringing youngsters through. The early rumors seem to suggest that we won’t be talking to Rafa Benitez. Yes, despite Henry’s fascination with the academy at Liverpool football club, we won’t be talking to the man who helped revamp it. I wouldn’t want Rafa back myself, and I wouldn’t want Capello either, but these are men you should attempt to interview if they’re available. In particular you have to interview Van Gaal and Rafa Benitez if, as is the case with John Henry, you’re convinced the future of the club is the academy and the key is to be able to bring players through that on mass. Van Gaal has worked at Barcelona and Ajax – you listen to what he has to say. Rafa has worked at Real Madrid and brought in the people at the academy at present, you have to listen to him as well. You try and talk to Pep Guardiola, but my bet is his agent never replies to the voice mail.

FSG though seem likely to look toward a younger man, which is why you get links from Martinez to Luís André de Pina Cabral e Villas-Boas. Personally, I’m not a huge Martinez fan, but I think we’re awful in this country for not giving managers like him a chance at better clubs. A lot of people have compared the CV of Martinez or Rodgers to someone like Rafa when we took him from Valencia. What we need to do is look at them compared to Rafa when he got the Valencia job, not the Liverpool job. Rafa was a promotion specialist who ended up getting sacked or relegated when he got to La Liga. Valencia looked at the man, the methods and what he could potentially bring, and it worked out brilliantly.

If we were actually a well run club I would have no problem with Brendan Rodgers because I think he’s incredibly impressive. Far more so than Martinez who gets an undue amount of praise for the football Swansea play when Rodgers has taken it on light years. If we were a club with a strong director of football, and a coherent vision that extended throughout the club then hiring someone like Rodgers or Martinez (or Lambert but I know less of him) as a ‘head coach’ might just be the bold gamble we need. WE ARE NOT THAT CLUB. FSG may like to pretend that we are that club, but we’re fucking not. We’re a club without a director of football, or a CEO, with no one captaining the ship on this side of the Atlantic. We’re a club where both chairman and owner are in Boston. We’re a club who don’t know if they’re going to appoint the manager or the director of football first.

We’re exactly the sort of club that would kill a manager like that at present, because we are visionless. Once you look past all the hyperbole there’s nothing there. Once you look through all the clever ideas that are never actually expanded on you’ll see No Stadium, No CEO, No Manager, No Director of Football.

Good luck with that, Roberto.

A whole bunch of mindless speculation. You're criticizing FSG for not talking to Van Gaal, Rafa, Capello, Guardiola, and Rodgers when the interview process hasn't even started.

[It's Jimmy Corkhill]

In terms of tactics, who do people regard as superior, Rafa or Luís André de Pina Cabral e Villas-Boas? They both have a reputation for being football obsessives, methodological and leaving no stone unturned in terms of pre-game research.

Rafa. He's won bigger things and bigger games with worse sides.

Tactically, Rafa is second to none.

[conman]

Good post Juan, but I do certainly think Rafa with some support, is THE best for this position.
We know what he can do, everything has already been set up through his blue print, the academy would by perfectly in sync with the first team, lots of cash is not required in comparison to some managers, you know he wont walk out if another job comes up, he is also analytical and methodical in his approach. I reckon there is a lof FSG would admire in Rafa the candidate. In addition, he is proven in the premier league, and in the club, his signings have been very astute (generally speaking).

[myliverbird]

I think the legends don't like Rafa because he seemingly refused to acknowledge their opinion. Which is no bad thing lets tell the truth.

[Regi]

yeah, and there comes a time where a manager loses it, capello did. like playing gerrard on the left.

Send him to jail for that.
An entire career ruined by playing Gerrard on the left.
FFS some unreal garbage in here