Topic: Purslow

[Trada]

Rafa in cryptic swipe at 'Pool management

Rafael Benitez today launched a cryptic attack on Liverpool’s ousted owners and current managing director Christian Purslow.

Benitez, whose six-year reign as manager ended in the summer, hit out at former co-owner Tom Hicks’ claim that he was largely to blame for the Reds’ worst ever start to the Barclays Premier League this season.

Hicks pointed the finger at Benitez for wasting much of the money he was given to spend during the latter half of his tenure.

But a clearly irked Benitez this afternoon insisted the Americans were to blame, citing their of appointment Purslow in the summer of last year as the beginning of a downward spiral that ended in the Spaniard’s exit.

In an outburst reminiscent of Eric Cantona’s famous quote featuring seagulls and trawlers, Inter Milan boss Benitez compared events leading up to his departure to a bottle of milk.

“I prefer not to talk too much about Liverpool,” said Benitez, who watched his former club’s Merseyside derby defeat on Sunday which left them second bottom of the table.

“I prefer not to talk about this because I feel really sorry for the fans.

“I was watching the fans and I was really sad after the defeat the other day.

“We have a saying in Spanish, which is: ’White liquid in a bottle has to be milk’.”

Benitez, who led Liverpool to second place in the Premier League in 2009 but could only manage seventh last term, added: “What does this mean? It means that after 86 points and finishing second in the league, what changed?

“The Americans, they chose a new managing director and everything changed.

“So, what changed?

“The managing director is involved in all the decisions: new lawyer, new chief of press, new manager, nine new players, new medical staff, new fitness coaches - they changed everything.

“At the beginning, they changed the managing director who was talking with some players, and they changed everything that we were doing in the past.

“So, if you want to ask again what was going on, it’s simple: they changed something and, at the end, they changed everything.

“So, white liquid in a bottle: milk. You will know who is to blame.”

Pressed further on the matter, Benitez would only say: “White liquid in a bottle. If I see John the milkman in the Wirral, where I was living, with this bottle, I’d say, ’It’s milk, sure’.”

http://www.eecho.ie/news/sport/rafa-in-cryptic-swipe-at-pool-management-478330.html

[Finn Solomon]

Can't believe everything Rafa built undone in a matter of months.

That's the nature of empires, it takes one strong willed man immense time and effort to build, but once he's gone the whole thing crumbles in a flash.

[Liverbird 2010]

ROY & PURSLOW OUT !!!!

[Disintegration]

Rafa is clearly incredibly hard to work with - Valencia, Parry, Pako, Purslow - so, objectively, he is by no means blameless. I think blaming Purslow 100% is misguided.

To me, the REAL villains here are the players who went behind Rafa's back and went snitching to Purslow. He is the easy scapegoat, whereas there are certain people - I suspect people who've been touted by many as potential future managers - who are ultimately more to blame for throwing a strop about working under Rafa.

[Chakan]

What him get absolutely slaughtered by the press.

[Hazell]

Rafa has admitted in previous interviews he has made mistakes.

Breintner, shelovesyou, Rafa's admitted to making mistakes in a recent interview with Dion Fanning (I'll try and find the link later but am at work at the minute). So can this myth be put to bed?

[nocturnalvin]

What Rafa was trying to say is that with Purslow, what you see is not what you get.
You see someone with a milk bottle, like John in the Wirral, you would assume its milk and nothing else.

[surfer. Fuck you generator.]

"At the beginning, they changed the managing director who was talking with some players, and they changed everything that we were doing in the past. So, if you want to ask again what was going on, it's simple: they changed something and, at the end, they changed everything.

This. The way he's worded it he's saying the appointed Purslow colluded with 'some players', and started making decisions to change things which were part of the football set-up.

Edit: Pretty clear after having looked at from a few sources.

[Dr Cornwallis]

As Claire said, his comments are for us, not the rest of the World.
People who think Rafa was flustered or pushed into answering something, they don't know Rafa, he's the master of the media and they hate him for it.
Rafa is infinitely more intelligent than the normal football manager or player, or journalist.  How many of them can speak 3 languages fluently?  People forget that Rafa has done the TV thing before, he worked as an analyst/pundit for Eurosport and also wrote columns for Marca and El Mundo.  Christ, he took a year of 'study' in England, when do you ever hear a manager taking time off to study management in other countries?  It's not a common occurance.
The man has a degree in P.E. as well, he's not your average manager, I can't stress this enough.

I feel embarrassed that we, as a club, 'got rid' of such a manager.  It's a travesty and I'm ashamed of what this club, notably Purslow, did to the man. 

[Myshkin]

Can someone explain the milk metaphor for me, I get the rest of it just curious

The saying in Spanish is something like "blanco y en una botella" which is literally translated as "white and in a bottle".

Putting "blanco y en una botella" into google, I found an article which explained it as the following; "Expresión que se dice cuando algo es fácil de deducir". My translation of that is "An expression that you say when something is easy to deduce.

Hope that helps.

[conman]

]


When was Purslow on OUR side.

1. When he fiddled the SOS minutes

2. When he told bare faced lies about the transfer budget including wages

3. When the manager was telling Alonso that we wanted him to stay and how much the fans loved him and Purslow was trying to swap him for Van De Vaart.

4. When he held his tunnel press conferences with journalist's

5. When he briefed Maddocks and orchestrated a media campaign to remove the manager.

6. When he stopped talking to Mascherano when a deal was agreed

7. When he pulled out of a free deal to sign Chamakh, when the player and his agent had agreed to join.

8. When he started talking to Hodgson in January about replacing Benitez.

9. When he started moves to sell Insua.

10, When he tried to silence RAWK with legal action over something that was freely available in the public Domain.

11. When he started negotiations to bring in Joe Cole without the managers knowledge.

12. When he knifed Benitez in the back when he was on holiday and Carra and Gerrard where safely tucked away on a plane to South Africa.

13. When he allowed Kenny to be used to legitimise a managerial selection process even though as Hodgson freely admits he had been talking to Liverpool for months.

14. When he Allowed Kenny to pitch for a Gig that had already been filled.

15. When he Negotiated a deal with Rhone that would of allowed Hicks and Gillet to stay indefinitely and totally dismantle and destroy our Club.

Purslow was appointed and worked for Hicks and Gillet, he helped them destroy our Club and the sooner we see the back of the lying deceitful snake the better. 

just to keep the the point ill make in context, and for anyone else that has other points, we can add them all to Al's brilliant post.

16. Purslow was reported as sitting in on every team talk or discussion Rafa had, and shadowing his every move, thereby undermining him and making life very difficult.

17. Is Purslow actually a fan? The only one saying that, is himself and H&G. What fan would wreck a manager that has just achieved a points total of 86?

[ianlit]

Rafa has got a right to be angry over the way he was treated at the end but he also has to take reponsibility for a lot of the mistakes he made himself throughout his reign. Blaming Purslow for everything just doesn't cut it. I know he's pushed to comment by the Sky reporters but he should just tell them to get lost.

Fronting up in public like a man. As opposed to Cecil's approach of snide briefings to the media behind closed doors in order to undermine the manager and drag the good name of the club through the gutter. Which one would you consider represents the Liverpool Way?

[ziggyy]

Real story needs to be told and only Rafa has the balls to call a spade, the spade....

Still don't understand why some people still talking about TLW... its long gone... when our ex-players continue to snipe at our current players and former managers, there's no need for us to maintain any form of false decorum.... 

[redders9]

can we send AL 555's summary to NESV?

ROY & CP out!

[Smicer7]

Rafa is clearly incredibly hard to work with - Valencia, Parry, Pako, Purslow - so, objectively, he is by no means blameless. I think blaming Purslow 100% is misguided.

To me, the REAL villains here are the players who went behind Rafa's back and went snitching to Purslow. He is the easy scapegoat, whereas there are certain people - I suspect people who've been touted by many as potential future managers - who are ultimately more to blame for throwing a strop about working under Rafa.

But if Purslow was good at his job, he shouldnt be influenced by players

[lachesis]

To be fair it sounds like Purslow became an agony Aunt for members of the squad rather than instigated a boot room coup.

[Ultimate Bromance]

Rafa is clearly incredibly hard to work with - Valencia, Parry, Pako, Purslow - so, objectively, he is by no means blameless. I think blaming Purslow 100% is misguided.

To me, the REAL villains here are the players who went behind Rafa's back and went snitching to Purslow. He is the easy scapegoat, whereas there are certain people - I suspect people who've been touted by many as potential future managers - who are ultimately more to blame for throwing a strop about working under Rafa.

For me the initial hatred for Rafa's departure was solely aimed at Purslow, and a little bit towards Broughton, simply because they were the men you could easily point the finger at. Now that more and more information has come out, I look at Gerrard, and I look at Carragher, and I give them the slow clap. Well done. Because you didn't want to play where the manager wanted you to, because you didn't want to slowly be rotated out of the team, because of whatever other pitiful fucking reasons you'll use to justify your little player power diva moment, you took it upon yourself to oust the man most capable of restoring the glory days of the past. Well fucking done. No one's bigger than the club, yet the heartbeat of the team's apparently forgotten that. They'll be legends forever, and I'll jump for joy at every Gerrard screamer, and say bravo for every last ditch tackle Carra puts in, but I'll never forget this. And I won't ever forgive.

Purslow's at fault because he doesn't know anything about football, but I place a large portion on the blame on our local heroes, because they simply should have known better.

[conman]

He was instrumental in attracting the Standard Chartered sponsorship but this was the job he was hired and well paid for.
Football is not and should never have been his forte. Rafa is outing him for the interfering and obstructive way he abused his position.
(I believe.)

was this Purslow or Ayres?
Eitherway, its the sort of thing both should be good at.

furthermore, we dont know how instrumental Purslow was in ousting the twats, ok, he sided with the club and voted against. Maybe Broughton did 90% of the work? I certainly dont know, just throwing out a thought.. which is we dont know of many if anything that he was instrumental in doing which was positive for the club. We do know he did some pretty nasty things, and we do know he atleast assisted in some very positive things. (sponsorship, court case etc)

[Veinticinco de Mayo]

Rafa is clearly incredibly hard to work with - Valencia, Parry, Pako, Purslow - so, objectively, he is by no means blameless. I think blaming Purslow 100% is misguided.

To me, the REAL villains here are the players who went behind Rafa's back and went snitching to Purslow. He is the easy scapegoat, whereas there are certain people - I suspect people who've been touted by many as potential future managers - who are ultimately more to blame for throwing a strop about working under Rafa.

Sorry mate, while I agree that Rafa is clearly not blameless I don'y buy that last bit.  There is discontent in every dressing room, there is always a player who thinks we should be playing differently, he should be playing more, or even that he should be paid more than another player.  That's everyday life in football, the thing is any decent MD of a football club when faced with snitching players of that nature would tell them to get the fuck back to training and take it up with the manager if they had a problem.  It seems that Purslow through inexperience and perhaps even through being overawed as a fan suddenly faced by people he considers to be legends has started to listen to them and pander to their concerns.  As soon as he does that the club is fucked, regardless of who the manager is. 

If this is true, and the evidence seems damning then Purslow has to go and soon.

[The Jackal]

Sad thing is you KNOW Purslow will be in their ear right now giving it all the usual shit, rafa lost the dressing room etc etc

I think they're probably cleverer than that.

[filopastry]

But if Purslow was good at his job, he shouldnt be influenced by players

Personally I don't think he was, I think that was a marriage of convenience as much as anything, after Rafa's removal there appears to have been a big change in the balance of power between the MD and manager position, very much to Purslow's advantage.

[macca888]

Typical Rafa, blames everyone else apart from himself.

Typical you. Talking shite and trying to get a rise out of it.

[conman]

To be fair it sounds like Purslow became an agony Aunt for members of the squad rather than instigated a boot room coup.

he shouldnt be doing that either.

the players are the Managers department, Finances and selling the club is his.
I dont tell another team members boss that I want a payrise, or i dont like doing such and such.

[i_wun_bite]

never did trust CP. even with the coup in ousting the cancers. i still don't trust him.

[E2K]

I'm sure he'll be the first to admit the mistakes he made in a more appropriate situation, like a book or an interview. This was in response to repeated questioning so he just mentioned the primary concern.

Correct:

http://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum/index.php?topic=263994.0

"Did we make mistakes? Obviously," Benitez said last week

”I'll say it again, we made mistakes”

Typical Rafa, blames everyone else apart from himself.

Really seems like it, doesn’t it?

[Smicer7]

Sorry mate, while I agree that Rafa is clearly not blameless I don'y buy that last bit.  There is discontent in every dressing room, there is always a player who thinks we should be playing differently, he should be playing more, or even that he should be paid more than another player.  That's everyday life in football, the thing is any decent MD of a football club when faced with snitching players of that nature would tell them to get the fuck back to training and take it up with the manager if they had a problem.  It seems that Purslow through inexperience and perhaps even through being overawed as a fan suddenly faced by people he considers to be legends has started to listen to them and pander to their concerns.  As soon as he does that the club is fucked, regardless of who the manager is. 

If this is true, and the evidence seems damning then Purslow has to go and soon.

Absolutely spot on. We need strong management, with a healthy distance between the management and playing side.

[surfer. Fuck you generator.]

can we send AL 555's summary to NESV?

ROY & CP out!

Tweet it, lads. I don't use twitter, but for those who do, henry's got an address. He'll be currently receiving information of the opposite nature from shortie (he's not a legend yet, right ?), do the necessary.

[Mr Dilkington]

The sad thing is, by the end of Rafa's tenure we had two managers, neither where Rafa Benitez.

[Disintegration]

But if Purslow was good at his job, he shouldnt be influenced by players

Not really being a football man like Rafa, he probably saw the key thing as keeping the players happy. From his point of view, if certain players 'did a Rooney' he probably thought that more hobbling. Wrong, but I just don't think his was a snakish coup - he is the businessman, and as much as people are loathe to admit it, the players were obviously in his was on a regular basis. Experienced pros, THEY know how it works. They were the ones who knew how to aid in Rafa's dismissal.

[Finn Solomon]

Typical Rafa, blames everyone else apart from himself.

Typical SLYYYY, blaming Rafa and no one else.

[WorldChampions]

I think they're probably cleverer than that.

What makes you so sure?

All I know is they will be asking Purslow for his side of the story, but no Rafa.

[shelovesyou]

Sorry mate, while I agree that Rafa is clearly not blameless I don'y buy that last bit.  There is discontent in every dressing room, there is always a player who thinks we should be playing differently, he should be playing more, or even that he should be paid more than another player.  That's everyday life in football, the thing is any decent MD of a football club when faced with snitching players of that nature would tell them to get the fuck back to training and take it up with the manager if they had a problem.  It seems that Purslow through inexperience and perhaps even through being overawed as a fan suddenly faced by people he considers to be legends has started to listen to them and pander to their concerns.  As soon as he does that the club is fucked, regardless of who the manager is. 

If this is true, and the evidence seems damning then Purslow has to go and soon.

As much as I dont take Rafa's words as gospel, the man has made mistakes but rarely admits to them, this is spot on. IF this is indeed true then perhaps he should go but of course it could all be a clash of personalities.

[ianlit]

Real story needs to be told and only Rafa has the balls to call a spade, the spade....

Still don't understand why some people still talking about TLW... its long gone... when our ex-players continue to snipe at our current players and former managers, there's no need for us to maintain any form of false decorum.... 

I'm hoping that with Purslow gone and with a decent management team under the new owners we can get it back.

[Chakan]

Typical Rafa, blames everyone else apart from himself.

Read Dion Fannings article with Benitez in the independent he says "we made a lot of mistakes" over and over. WE. As in him included

http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/liverpool-is-my-home-and-i-will-come-back-2362665.html

[Smicer7]

Personally I don't think he was, I think that was a marriage of convenience as much as anything, after Rafa's removal there appears to have been a big change in the balance of power between the MD and manager position, very much to Purslow's advantage.

I appreciate your point, but why would an MD want to get rid of a manager who was popular with the fans? Sure, some fans had turned against him, but there was no sizeable backlash against Rafa. Even those who wanted him out wouldnt have begrudged him one more season. It just seems a very strange decision - almost unprecedented. What other chairman/ MD has sacked a manager when no one was calling for his head? There had to be an input from players, and he's pandered to them

[Tuckwoor]

The "chatter" from NESV about keeping him on as a director now they have taken over worries me.

[Chakan]

As much as I dont take Rafa's words as gospel, the man has made mistakes but rarely admits to them, this is spot on. IF this is indeed true then perhaps he should go but of course it could all be a clash of personalities.

So now he Rarely admits them , while a second ago he "blames everyone but himself" You are so full of it!

[sirjames]

Rafa is not spanish hes scouse.

He just is the liverpool way to me.

Cecil out. Roy out.

[the 92A]

Posted this in another thread:

With you 100%, as you know I'm a big Rafa fan, great managers who have "cultural fit" are a rare bird and should be handled accordingly.

But, on reflection, MB had to do what he did.  It was the shoot-out at OK Corral, and Rafa had to lose, CP had to stay on-board for the ultimate battle to rid us of G&H. 

Unfortunately, in this case, it was a lose to win situation, both results were unpalatable, but at the end of the day, losing the ownership battle was more destructive.

Now that's won though, it's time to bring the broom out and clean the place up.....CP needs to go, as does RH, and both ASAP.

I think you're spot on on why Broughton backed pursloe over Rafa, He needed him because he understood his main role was to sell the club and that dictated his choice. With hindsight Broughton did what he set out to and in the process has enhanced his reputation. Pursloe on the other hand is a snake who acted like the worst sort of starstruck fan, thrown into the role by fate he proceeded to meddle in everything in a completely amateurish way and was responsible for a fair proprtion of the shit we are now suffering. I was going to call him a c*nt but Al articulates it so much better..

 

]


When was Purslow on OUR side.

1. When he fiddled the SOS minutes

2. When he told bare faced lies about the transfer budget including wages

3. When the manager was telling Alonso that we wanted him to stay and how much the fans loved him and Purslow was trying to swap him for Van De Vaart.

4. When he held his tunnel press conferences with journalist's

5. When he briefed Maddocks and orchestrated a media campaign to remove the manager.

6. When he stopped talking to Mascherano when a deal was agreed

7. When he pulled out of a free deal to sign Chamakh, when the player and his agent had agreed to join.

8. When he started talking to Hodgson in January about replacing Benitez.

9. When he started moves to sell Insua.

10, When he tried to silence RAWK with legal action over something that was freely available in the public Domain.

11. When he started negotiations to bring in Joe Cole without the managers knowledge.

12. When he knifed Benitez in the back when he was on holiday and Carra and Gerrard where safely tucked away on a plane to South Africa.

13. When he allowed Kenny to be used to legitimise a managerial selection process even though as Hodgson freely admits he had been talking to Liverpool for months.

14. When he Allowed Kenny to pitch for a Gig that had already been filled.

15. When he Negotiated a deal with Rhone that would of allowed Hicks and Gillet to stay indefinitely and totally dismantle and destroy our Club.

Purslow was appointed and worked for Hicks and Gillet, he helped them destroy our Club and the sooner we see the back of the lying deceitful snake the better. 

[Strummer77]

"If I see John the milkman in the Wirral, where I was living, with this bottle, I'd say, 'It's milk, sure'."

 

Go 'ead Rafa la, tell it like it is.

That made me smile. Loved his press conferences, my favourite was the Cricket one in 2005, anyone remember that?