Spot on. Apart from the miracle of Istanbul Rafa was manager for a largely underwhelming six years where the 'football' was boring for much of the time - same as from Houllier before him.
The pining by some is indeed cringeworthy. At work and at the match I know no one who wants him back yet log-in to RAWK and there's always the 'Rafa FC' fans forever pining - some people need to get over it and move on.
Spoken like a "true" fan who follow Liverpool only when we win trophies. And, oh my god, you sure missed a lot of good football since Istanbul.
Where were you when we won the FA Cup in 2006 and ended up with 82 points. Where we you when we made it into a second Champions League Finals in 2007, and almost made a 3rd in 2008 losing narrowly to Chelsea in part due to a 95th minute own goal by Riise? And how many clubs in all history of all football can claim such an excellent record in the best competition in football all in the space of 4 years? Where were you when we became the best team in Europe, and came in second to the Mancs with 86 points, our 2nd highest points total per game in all of our history, whilst scoring the most of any team in England? Is it lost on you that 86 points would have won the league the following year? Where were you when we spanked Real Madrid 5-0 on aggregate, and twatted the Mancs 6-2 over two games, demolished Aston Villa 5-0, and played incredibly scintillating 4-4 draws with Arsenal and Chelsea?
We all revere Rafa for a reason despite his flaws, the simple being that we follow all the games, whether they are bad ones or good ones, and we analyze to see what went wrong in the game. We don't wake up one morning, pick up the papers and look at the score and go: shit! How can we draw with such a shit team like Stoke?
The pining you see here would be the same in 1974, 1983 and 1991, the same for any of the past Great Liverpool managers (if the internet had existed then), and make no mistake about it - Rafa is one of the greats.
