Bring back the boot room !!!

I don't mean that Rafa and his backroom staff should drink cups of tea, sat among racks of dirty boots in a tiny room. I mean that something is amiss at Anfield and Melwood and its clear to see on the pitch. Rafa is under enormous pressure, some fair, some unfair, some brought on himself and some downright vindictive. Iv'e no doubt that Rafa Benitez Maudes is the hardest working person at LFC, but the poor fella can't do it all himself. Say what you will about Pako Ayesteran situation but i dont doubt that the loss of an Assistant Manager is one of a significant number of factors in our often poor form. The Players must also take their fair share of blame, Rafa can't pass it for them or put the ball in the net !!.   
Quite simply we need to create another modern day boot room. Rafa must stay, I want him to stay for years more to see through the youth players we have invested in.  but we must also look to the future.
Consider, by first looking at the past.

           Shankly     Paisley- Fagan-Bennett-   

           Paisley       Fagan-Moran--    Evans ?
 
           Fagan        Moran-Evans

           Dalglish      Moran- Evans   (Paisley as adviser)
           
           Souness    Bootroom RIP 

           Evans       Moran- Lee

Ok forgive me if iv'e put names in the wrong places or forgotten to include others, what i'm trying to put across is the sense of continuity , knowledge, experience, in short the Liverpool Way. It was the cornerstone of our success for 3 decades. We must get back to our roots. There have been numerous changes since the bootroom times: the academy, the premiership, increased wages, ludicrous amounts of money in the game and a more scientific approach to the game includeing the notorious rotation. Rafa excells at the scientific side but we must have a union between the old and new. LFC must stabalize our present and secure our future.
There have been numerous threads about the merits of Gary MacAllister or Sammy Lee as assistant manager, i say bring them both in !!  Gary Macca as assistant manager with Lil Sammy Lee as First team coach.

          Benitez    MacAllister-  Lee           i'm sure there'd still be room for Alex Miller

Even if Rafa stayed 4,5,6 more years, it's inevitable that he will leave someday. LATER rather than sooner ok Hicks and Gillete, give the man some time, even shankly argued with the board.
what i'm suggesting is forward planning. Allow MacAllister and Lee to absorb Rafa's knowledge and vice versa, help him share the pressure and when that inevitable day comes and we say fare well to Rafael Benitez Maudes then we would have a fighting chance. With continuity and a managment team already familliar with the Liverpool way and the younger players who  have hopefully come up through the ranks.

Consider the future, possibly maybe 

         MacAllister    Lee-   Carragher(player-coach)

         Carragher-    Lee-   Gerrard( player-coach)

we can only dream eh ?? feel free to discuss or mock appropriately. Ta

Thats a good idea about the boot room,its a pity we cant bring Shanks, Paisley and Joe Fagan back to assist Rafa and to deal with the gutter press for him.Could you imagine Bill Shankly with a smart arse press man,Shanks would rip him to pieces for having the audacity to try and degenerate the good name of Liverpool Football Club.Feel much better having said that.In memory of the above 3 Heros come on the mighty REDS lets show the world what we can do.

Isn't anyone interested in discussing the merits of my idea ?? c'mon guys & gals

I don't know about a boot room but I feel there is a definite need to replace Paco.

It must be very difficult for Rafa to deal with everything and I feel an assistant would help relieve the pressure.

I think Gary Mac would be ideal.

I thought Rafa already had a back room.

Replaced Pako with Paco de Miguel (fitness) and Angel Vales (head of technical analysis for the club and reserve coach)...

Why Paco de Miguel nows (replacing Pako) sits nexts to Rafa for games instead of Angel (who sets up all the analysis of our players and opposition) ... I will never know... must be a reason.

I do know the mega clashes with Pako (last summer) were around Angel's appointment/role (all 3 guys used to work together in previous lives in Spain).

I dont understand what you are saying.

Rafa already has many staff around him which you could call his 'boot room'.

Are you saying you want a better standard of staff or that you want one of them to take over as manager of Liverpool once Rafa has left, whenever that may be.

Personally i believe Pako needs replacing and i would love to see Gary Macca take his place but im unsure whether he is tactically astute enough to fill that roll.


..... can a mod change my name to  RedLaz  by any chance as i do not know how/if i can change it ?

I think Gary Mac (with my total respect for the man) joining the dozen or so current back room, boot room, jock strap room whatever you want to call it... would only unsettle the players and Rafa personally EVEN more.

...and yes I know the difference between the old concept of back room and hierarchical/job-inherentance boot room... and no I don't think it would a great idea, if that was what the club had wanted then Stevie H would still be at the club - wouldn't he?

Gary Mac joining us now, now that would REALLY make Rafa feel like a dead man walking...

If Rafa wants help above what he has got in his staff, he will ask for it... if he hasn't - then don't mend what is, yet, not broken.

Decent comments so far. What i'm suggesting is indeed a way of ensureing continuity and as donrafael says "job-inheritence"  a way of ensureing that we have competent staff who are intimately familliar with LFC. I'd hate for us to turn into a numpty club like Spurs or Newcastle who have managerial rotation down to a fine art !

...and yes I know the difference between the old concept of back room and hierarchical/job-inherentance boot room... and no I don't think it would a great idea, if that was what the club had wanted then Stevie H would still be at the club - wouldn't he?

Gary Mac joining us now, now that would REALLY make Rafa feel like a dead man walking...

 
 
The problem was between Steve Highway and Rafa and their differing views on youth development, plus Heighway was due to retire soon anyway.  If You know more about Angel Vales and Paco de miguel then i defer to your knowledge mate, but we DO need an assistant manager ASAP  whether its Gary Macca or Sammy Lee and i for one would like someone with a bit of history and an LFC connection about them. Why do you say bringing someone in would make him feel more of a dead man walking ?? on the contrary what i'm suggesting is meant to relieve pressure on Rafa and build for our future. Rafa is friends with Sammy Lee and is obviously familliar with Gary Macca (having offered him the reserve team managers job before Ablett was appointed)

Well personally I think Gary Mac would be a great addition to Benitez's staff. He just seems like a real friendly and approachable guy and would really relate to the players. Gary Mac gets my vote anyways !

Well personally I think Gary Mac would be a great addition to Benitez's staff. He just seems like a real friendly and approachable guy and would really relate to the players. Gary Mac gets my vote anyways !

Rafa has already offerd him a job on his bench long before Pako left. Mac turned the job down as he said it was too soon to go back into the game after the death of his wife plus he didn't want to uproot his young children at this time

Rafa has already offerd him a job on his bench long before Pako left. Mac turned the job down as he said it was too soon to go back into the game after the death of his wife plus he didn't want to uproot his young children at this time

Ah rite. Hopefully the time cud be right soon enough ay !?

kingjari

I fully support your idea. I for one believes in the old Liverpool way, that is, no one knows how to run the club better than those who had served the club before either as a player or a backroom staff and stayed around long enough to know and understand the culture well enough to manage the club. We already have the blueprint of success at our disposal, we just need to revisit it, modify it and no need to re-invent the wheel. However, I'm not sure whether can we replicate our success with previous players where many are still around but with little management experience while the bootroom setup has changed over the years. My only fear is, say Rafa decides to leave tommorrow he may bring the bootroom staff together and we will have no successor in-line. Gary Mac is a good choice but I'm skeptical as he has not been around long enough while Sammy appears to be still short of that few yards. How about Dalglish then, he has done that before? Did we care to ask him? He may bring back some old warriors as backroom staff? Besides that, he is a big enough character to demand the respect from the players.

To be honest, I don't see it happening in the near future while Rafa is still around as the bearded one has his own ways and ideas of doing things and bringing back the old timers may just be a clash of culture which leads to further problems. This can only be done when Rafa is no longer around (not that I'm suggesting that he should not be around, I want him to stay as long as possible) and we start from ground zero.

As redkop says there would probably be a clash of cultures if we try bringing in past players & coaches. However I do believe Rafa will build his own dynasty here, as players retire I would expect some to stay on in coaching roles & hopefully one day one of them will be handed the reins.

Eddie C is most probably right, as much as I'd like to see the old warriors lead the dynasty but by having Gerrard Houlllier and now Rafa at the helm means that we have created a vucuum filled by foreign managers and there's no way that we can have the old boys back so soon. Maybe one day we will see Gerrard, Fowler, Carragher and perhaps Hyppia leading the club.

Wasn't Thommo an attempt at bringing back a boot room?