In what contextWould he shite
Yes i'd have to agree with that,think Rafa is underated and has a proven track record of silver wear.Can't understand the stick he gets to be honest.Would be the best qualified Manager that we could hire. An exceptional tactician who has won silverware. I'd take him over any other Manager that we could likely attract.
Yes i'd have to agree with that,think Rafa is underated and has a proven track record of silver wear.Can't understand the stick he gets to be honest.
Apart from Mourinho and Ferguson, nobody has had more success in England and Europe over the past ten years than Benitez. I can't believe the way some people dismiss him.
He won the CL with Liverpoo with somebody else's squad, then proceeded to dismantle that squad to ultimately leave the rebuilding of the club that we've all witnessed over the last 4 or 5 years. It's no coincidence that Liverpoo won a trophy in his first 2 seasons, then won absolutely bugger all since (apart from the League Cup in 2012). it's also easy to forget that he left Liverpoo in 7th place in the PL, and was fired even though it was reported that it cost the owners at the time £6million in compensation to remove him.
He won the CL with Liverpoo with somebody else's squad, then proceeded to dismantle that squad to ultimately leave the rebuilding of the club that we've all witnessed over the last 4 or 5 years. It's no coincidence that Liverpoo won a trophy in his first 2 seasons, then won absolutely bugger all since (apart from the League Cup in 2012). it's also easy to forget that he left Liverpoo in 7th place in the PL, and was fired even though it was reported that it cost the owners at the time £6million in compensation to remove him.
It’s so important to get the next appointment right – I think we all agree on that – but to dismiss Benitez is madness. Ok, his ego got the better of him in following Mourinho to Inter, and trying to put his stamp on a winning formula, but that’s one managerial mistake in his whole career.
Look at his roll of honour:
Extremadura
- Segunda División promotion (1): 1997–98
Tenerife
- Segunda División promotion (1): 2000–01
Valencia
Liverpool
- La Liga (2): 2001–02, 2003–04
- UEFA Cup (1): 2003–04
Internazionale
- FA Cup (1): 2005–06
- FA Community Shield (1): 2006
- UEFA Champions League (1): 2004–05
- UEFA Super Cup (1): 2005
Chelsea
- Supercoppa Italiana (1): 2010
- FIFA Club World Cup (1): 2010
- UEFA Europa League (1): 2012–13
Napoli
- Coppa Italia (1): 2013–14
Individual awards
His Napoli team were 2-1 up with ten mins to go the other night in the Coppa Italia final, had a man sent off and then scored another! Can you imagine us doing that?! His Liverpool would not have lost 2-0 at home to Chelsea when a draw would effectively have secured them the league title.
- Don Balón Award (1): 2002
- UEFA Manager of the Year (2): 2003–04, 2004–05
- Premier League Manager of the Month (6): November 2005, December 2005, January 2007, October 2008, March 2009, April 2013
To criticise his time at Liverpool neglects to mention that the owners who took over were ripping the club apart. He fell out with them and left. They then appointed Roy Hodgson.
Plus he took them to two CL finals in 3 seasons. He is an excellent manager, if a somewhat emotionally-led and eccentric man. He is an excellent manager because he is able to adapt his tactics to suit the scenario, which is why he has won so many trophies. And the jibe about his teams playing dull football is not true – Chelsea (and Juan Mata) were excellent to watch under him and his Liverpool team that narrowly missed out on the title were class too (4-1 at Old Trafford).
FDB could be another AVB for me (having read up on his style of football too). He wins a league which he should win. His record in the Cup comps (especially Europe) is really poor and shows a tactical inflexibility. Even Celtic do well in Europe and no one would want Neil Lennon.
Pochettino would be a massive gamble. From end of Nov to early Jan, Southampton won 1 out of 9 league games. Is that good enough? Can you imagine him getting away with that? That’s relegation form and for all his positives he’s finished below a Man U team which is totally out of sorts. They’ve spent a lot of money and have a very good team and I think he should have done better.
It’s Benitez all the way for me. I’d be absolutely delighted if we got him. And ask yourself this – if opposition fans were really honest, who would they want us NOT to get?
And then he did the exact opposite at Chelsea, salvaging a season and winning two trophies in the process. At a club where the fans pretty much unanimously hated him. I'm not saying his time at Liverpool or Inter was an unqualified success but there's enough there to suggest he should be near the top of our list...
I'm fully aware of what he achieved at other clubs (I too went to Wikipedia to get his info ), and I've clearly explained my misgivings about having him as our manager.
The other points you make, are points that everyone has already covered in their previous responses. If FDB 'should' be winning the Dutch League, why was it something like 6 seasons that they went without winning the league before he took over? How come he's won the league for the 4th successive season, becoming the first manager in their history to do so, despite selling his best player every year?
As for Pochettino, God knows why you mentioned him? I certainly didn't!
Then there's the bit I made bold & enlarged. When have I mentioned that?
If he is willing to work with a DOF I would be ok with it.
Ha! Yeah, good old Wiki. I wasn’t trying to show off any knowledge of his achievements, but it’s good to see them written down, just to underline the fact.
To be fair coopsieyid, you didn’t say mention Pochettino or Benitez’s teams playing boring football – they were more general points that others have mentioned. As you can see, I went off on one on my reply!
I’m just worried about FDB’s lack of success outside winning the league. Why has he not won a cup in that time? What AVB achieved in one year at Porto was amazingly impressive and that included a European trophy. I will try and find the info I read about his style of play…
I hear you loud an clear buddy, and I fully understand where you're coming from. It seems to me that we are both really saying the very same thing, and voicing our concerns about our next manager, whoever that may be.
One word of caution (something to take into account) when trying to compare FCB to AVB, though. AVB had the likes of Guarin, Rodriguez, Souza, Moutinho, Maicon, Pereira, Falcao and Hulk to call upon. FDB had his best players sold year after year.
That must be taken into account, mate. It's that ability to continue to win, despite losing his best players each year, that has made me lean towards wanting him at THFC. It's something we've been unable to avoid, so we may be very well advised to get somebody who is not only able to work under such constraints, but continue to succeed under them.