In my opinion this article is absolutely bang on. I always thought the same, that his relation to the team was in a dead end street. Rafa can do everything, just not creating a relation to the players like Mourinho can f.e.
I'm still not too sure about that. Surely, Rafa is not Mourinho, but I still think he had good relationships at least with some players. His reaction to Masch being sent off at OT and going absolutely nuts suggests that they had some kind of understanding. Same for Bellamy's reaction after the 2-1-win vs. Barcelona. I think I even remember Rafa giving Pacheco (
) some encouragement when he subbed him on late in a game (could have been Pacheco's senior debut). I also remember Cissé, Nando and even Gerrard saying that Rafa improved them as players. So, they at least seem to be able to acknowledge that Rafa as a manager is/was good for them.
The only complaints about Rafa only really came from players who were shipped out (Pennant, Riera) and where you could say their behaviour played a part in them being shipped out. I also remember some players being pretty pissed off with the way they've been treated when we were trying to sell them (Cissé for example), but that was after we made the decision to get rid of them.
Rafa is no best-mate kind of manager, but I believe he's not that cold-hearted twat people are making him out to be, either. As Sid Lowe says in that article there has to be room for a little bit of gray and I think that's especially true for Rafa and his relationship with the players.
Roy hasn't been in charge of the club long enough to draw any conclusions, but one thing is pretty clear IMO. Those dire performances last season weren't down to the players hating Rafa or Rafa not being able to motivate them. They were down to something else as we've seen some dire performances this season as well. And there's not really something like a honey-moon period (with players looking happier and playing better) you'd expect with a new manager replacing a really hated one.