Refusal to play younger players? Are you insane or have you not been paying attention to our games? Ngog has played a part in most of our games, and Lucas (yes at 23 he still counts as a young player) is a virtual ever-present. Same with Insua.
Pacheco And Ayala got debuts, Spearing played, Kelly would be starting many matches had he not got injured (whilst playing for the 1st team). Darby has played.
They have all been given valuable game time, and I think only Kelly (if fit) has the chance to start games (if Johnson struggles with injury). Pacheco is going to be one hell of a player, but he is not ready yet. 4 months of steady sub appearances and he could be ready to make an impact next season.
Contary to your statement, this season has been fantastic for our young players because of the injury situation. Even though they have played in struggling teams, I think this will have given them a great experience which may bear fruit next season, which brings us back to the original topic, Rafa's future.
If you take into account that the likes of Lucas, Insua (whilst currently struggling) and Ngog have improved from last season and Pacheco is developing too, could these players have an even bigger impact next season, allowing us to spend what little money we have where we really need it, and give ourselves every opportunity to having a great 2010/11? Players that are more loyal to Rafa than the likes of Babel? I think this could be the key to whether Rafa can survive or not.
Some good points about the younger players, El Zhar is another one who, at 23 is hardly a kid anymore, but who's come through the ressies, and clearly would have had a part to play this season but for injury.
Looking at it, if we can secure 4th spot and go on a reasonable run by the end of the season (and lets face it, we've been more than 4 points off the top 4 before and powered our way into 'comfortable' CL qualification before now, and with the injuries we've had, players we've got to come back it's not like we don't have a reason to believe we can hit much, much better form) there are some real positives to take into next season.
In Kelly, Lucas, Insua, Ayala, Pach, Nemeth, Darby, Spearing we've got a bunch of young, hungry players, all who will count as 'home grown' for the CL, all of whom have had at least a valuable taste of first team action, or developed into genuine first team, or great squad quality. Even Ecclestone's had some minutes, and showed promise there too. That's 6-8 players right there who add depth and in some cases real quality to our squad, basically for free, on top of what we had before. Not all will be great, but you can see our future O'Shea's, Brown's and the like - loyal, hungry squad players, that's as valuable these days as world class forwards. Even the ones who don't make it are going to bring in decent fees - Nemeth, for example, will have already made us cash with his loan to Greece - which can be reinvested in more young players, or in the senior team.
We can't buy great players to sit on the bench, and won't be able to for many years yet, we have to make them, and considering Rafa's only made the changes he wanted in the summer, that's already an impressive return (considering these players have come through a botched system). We've no reason to believe this will get anything but better in the years to come. Whatever Rafa's future, it's essential that we build on these foundations, and it would be very useful to give Rafa at least another season to get this stuff set in stone, get people like Borrel and McParland invested in the project, and give Dalglish the time to know all he needs to know about this stuff, so if Rafa does get replaced at least we wouldn't be throwing out the baby with the bath water.
Of course, I'd rather have Rafa here for many years to see it through himself, and I'm sure he would too. He would have left any other club with the shit he's put up with here, but clearly the crazy man has completely fallen in love with our club and it's traditions...he's as much a fan as the rest of us, which is something people might bear in mind when urging him to 'take responsibility' - as if he isn't already taking on far more than any manager I can think of.
