You mention that you thought it was bitterness, tbh, in one way that has an element of truth. for with the teams we had we should have won more, and did not purely down to both Rafa's overly defensive style of football
When I see Gerrard rescuing us with goal after goal down those years, I can't help but feel it's an awful shame how he didn't win the league here in his prime, with some of the best players in Europe at the time, having to settle for top 4 spots instead because of football with the handbrake on, the kind of which Mourinho is getting (rightly) hammered and ridiculed for now.
In the summer he lost one of the biggest players in the squad in Owen and also bought one of the best players the club has seen in Xabi. Sad - have a word with yourself.
No, I'll have a word with yourself, to help set the record straight.
He didn't lose Owen that summer. He took him all the way to Graz to put him on the bench. All he had to do to keep him was put him on the pitch. But no he wouldn't do that. He then got rid of him three days later, so the backlash against Owen began and continues to this day. Without him, we finished out of the top 4 that season, 40 odd points down the table.
The credit he gets for buying Xabi, was lost when he tried to get rid of him to buy Gareth Barry. Thankfully the bullying didn't work for him that time, we got another year out of Xabi and Barry never showed up.
To understand my thinking about Benitez, you have to understand what most fans think about Owen. They see him as someone who played for the mancs, not as the 158 goal machine who won us several trophies, (including Cardiff on his own) so he must be discredited and insulted personally at every opportunity.
I see Rafa as the man who was brought here to win us the EPL and failed. So pretty much everything about his time in charge, (bar Istanbul and Cardiff) and his adventures since, is fair game for discussion, in a "Rafael Benitez Discussion Thread".
10 years ago he was drawing 0-0 against Stoke. 10 years on he is still drawing games 0-0, and is bottom of the pile nowadays, while we're setting new records and going for new accomplishments.
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