The past few days have been testing times for everyone, a week where we should have been buoyant over a possible astute capture in the January transfer window has turned into a week of hell. But I disagree with Hansen in his article where he says Rafa's under more pressure than Houllier and Evans were.
I think getting knocked out the FA cup was seen as a nail in this season's coffin if you like but what people are forgetting, and it's worth forgetting mind, is that barring the win in 2006 in the cup we've been consistantly woeful in the competition even when we were playing well.
We've been knocked out by Burnley and Barnsely in recent seasons, suffered a painful Derby exit and were almost humiliated by Havant and Waterlooville. Failure in this cup is nothing new sadly, it's not down to Rafa losing the plot or losing the dressing room because you'd have to argue that was the case in all those cup exits as well. My point is because of the context of the season, the media have gone into a frenzy about it where normally they wouldn't have the knives quite as sharp. I feel we're having the short term woes rammed down our throats at the minute forcing a lot of people not to consider the larger picture. People have lost patience because the Media have made out that it's literally the end of the season - it's not, we still have so many games to play and so many points to fight for in the league as well as a winnable European trophy. We desperately need to get behind the team and the manager because we could still salvage something from this season.
I think how the media have treated Rafa this week has been absolutely disgusting, never in a million years would Ferguson or Wenger be belittled as Rafa has yet United also went out the cup to lower league opposition and have made some very questionable tranfers in and out the club during the summer.
At the end of the day football has become more competative than ever with cash injections of absurd amounts. You can't win something every season (tell that to Arsenal fans). Sometimes even, you'll underachieve massively, there's no explanation for it, it just depends on a number of circumstances that occur that season. Has Rafa done a lot in his 5 years here so far? A European cup, an FA cup, several finals and an overhaul of an average team into one with genuine class. Don't let the press fool you, there's quality in our side, we're just finding it impossible to show it as morale has sunk to a new low and everyone's feeling the pressure. A few wins on the bounce will change that I'm sure. Rafa's managerial capabilities shouldn't be in question. He'll feel some pressure but get rid of him and it's fool us. Rafa will recover, he'll have a huge wad of cash in his pocket as he flies to Milan or Madrid where he'll be welcomed with open arms. Would we recover? If The American's judged Klinsman to be the man to take us forward then I would fear for us.
Rafa will get us out of this mess.
