maybe you are right and he may eventually get it right but how much more time do you give him if in a season or twos time we are still where we are there will still be people saying that,
Look, I've been watching football for a very long time and I see signs, in the current squad, that we are getting very close to being a real force to deal with. Yes, today was awful, but look at the way we are playing now. It's pass and move all over again. Gone is the hoofball of the past, a dark and distant memory now from the Houllier era. We are holding onto the ball, passing it along the ground and the only thing we are lacking is solidity at the back and a cutting edge up front. I shudder to think how good a young Michael Owen or Robbie Fowler would have been in our side. We would have suited them perfectly, particularly the former, who had to play in Houllier's hoofball sides and maybe, never fullfilled his true potential because of it. Yes, he was amazing but I would love to see how good he could have been if you were able to move him forwards in time and put him into our current side.
That is what we are missing. When Torres is injured, we don't have anybody to knock in the goals. Robbie Keane was not the solution in this regard. He was not good enough. Yeah, he was better than Babel and Ngog but that's not sayign much. Rafa made the tough decision to get rid when he was still worth close to what we paid and that's one reason why some of us love him - he's not afraid to take risks.
Now, regarding how much time Benitez gets, that depends. If you realistically think that we should expect the title every year now just because he has been here for four years, then you are dreaming. Those days are gone. I grew up in those days but I've had to realign my expectations with reality. You just don't win things unless you have the best players and it takes money to get them.
And, it doesn't seem to be the case that you can get anything for free anymore by having a good youth policy. Hell, it used to be that there was such a thing as "an unknown" quantity in football from south america or malaysia or Egypt or whereever. Nowadays, there is so much money in the game that it seems like we know about anybody talented from the age of 16 onwards. If they are really talented, big clubs start watching them when they are 12 years old. So, it's a lot harder to get good young players.
That means that we have to buy players but when you are competing in the transfer market against ManU who can outbid you every time and Chelsea and when you had a CEO that drags his heels in negotiations like Parry did, then it becomes very difficult. I say - Give Rafa at least two more years post-Parry before we even start contemplating getting rid. Lets see who he buys in the summer.
Besides, who are you going to replace him with? Mourinho? Anybody that believes that Mourinho is some kind of gennie who is going to make all our wishes come true is kidding themselves. He's a good manager but he won the league with vastly superior resources at Chelsea. He is winning in Italy with Inter but the league has been decimated by the refing scandal and Juventus are not the force they once were because of it.
He won the CL with Porto but so what. Rafa won it with us and beat him to get there. Rafa also won the league in Spain against Barca and Madrid, arguably a much greater achievement than Mourinho's two English titles. So when you compare their track records, you have to say that we would be weaker, not stronger with Mourinho. Press conferences might be more fun but I don't think our club needs any more of a media circus than it already has.
So, I say that this discussion is premature. In the internet era, it seems that it only takes one loss before a portion of the fans start going mental. Two losses and they are clamouring for the manager's head. It's ridiculous. We get into the CL every year easily now under Rafa. We used to be fighting like Tigers for a CL place under Houllier apart from that one year that we came 2nd. That's progress. Our style of play has changed to possession football from the counter-attacking football of the Houllier era. That's progress. We've brought players like Torres and Alonso to the club because of Rafa. That's progress. We've got one of the best goalkeepers in the world in goal because of Rafa. That's progress. So, people who are saying we aren't going forward are just looking at the negatives. Get behind the team and manger and lets give him the time he needs. Otherwise, it won't be 18-18. It will be 24-18 after another decade and that will hurt a lot worse than the current Fall from grace.
