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      The Official Paul Tomkins Thread

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      waltonl4
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      Re: Paul Tomkins meets John W Henry
      Reply #460: Nov 03, 2010 02:02:52 pm
      My problem is just that you have highlighted Football is a crazy F***ing madness of a business and he seems to think he can sort that out or apply his US sports principals to it. Did he not see what happend with Rooney utter madness. Saying you will not work like that is admirable but just as bonkers as the Rooney situation in reverse.It has become a Billionaires play thing we must now accept if I am right that we cannot compete with Chelsea.City, Man U.
      He will be a very frustrated man i fhe thinks he can apply any sort of logic to this sport especailly herein England and we will have to get used to missing out on lots of our transfer targets because people with deeper pockets will get their first.
      Please tell me I am wrong.
      TKIDLLTK
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      Re: Paul Tomkins meets John W Henry
      Reply #461: Nov 03, 2010 02:03:32 pm
      Great article from one off the only journalists I trust 100%
      P.S can some one tell me how to do the news article yoke :/

      Great stuff, I like what I am hearing and seeing from Henry.

      Code: [Select]
      [news=Headline]
      Henry had a meeting with Tompkins[/news]

      looks like this
      Headline
      Henry had a meeting with Tompkins
      « Last Edit: Nov 03, 2010 02:09:06 pm by TKIDLLTK »
      KennyIsKing
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      Re: Paul Tomkins meets John W Henry
      Reply #462: Nov 03, 2010 02:04:19 pm
      My problem is just that you have highlighted Football is a crazy F***ing madness of a business and he seems to think he can sort that out or apply his US sports principals to it. Did he not see what happend with Rooney utter madness. Saying you will not work like that is admirable but just as bonkers as the Rooney situation in reverse.It has become a Billionaires play thing we must now accept if I am right that we cannot compete with Chelsea.City, Man U.
      He will be a very frustrated man i fhe thinks he can apply any sort of logic to this sport especailly herein England and we will have to get used to missing out on lots of our transfer targets because people with deeper pockets will get their first.
      Please tell me I am wrong.

      Financial fair play rules, coupled with increased capacity will ensure our competetive future.

      IMO of course.
      shabbadoo
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      Re: Paul Tomkins meets John W Henry
      Reply #463: Nov 03, 2010 02:04:48 pm
      I F***ing hate being kept in the dark!

      Tell me please!  pleeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaassss ssssssseeeeeeee!
      waltonl4
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      Re: Paul Tomkins meets John W Henry
      Reply #464: Nov 03, 2010 02:06:09 pm
      I f**king hate being kept in the dark!

      Tell me please!  pleeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaassss ssssssseeeeeeee!
      Bingo welcome to my world.
      Dannylfc
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      Re: Paul Tomkins meets John W Henry
      Reply #465: Nov 03, 2010 02:24:53 pm
      Really impressed hes taking the time to meet senior figures and groups within the fans.
      CRK
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      Re: Paul Tomkins meets John W Henry
      Reply #466: Nov 03, 2010 03:04:44 pm
      Fantastic read.

      P.S can some one tell me how to do the news article yoke :/


      http://www.lfcreds.com/reds/index.php?topic=15397.0
      waltonl4
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      Re: Paul Tomkins meets John W Henry
      Reply #467: Nov 03, 2010 03:09:40 pm
      Financial fair play rules, coupled with increased capacity will ensure our competetive future.

      IMO of course.
      how do they work For instance if Man city have a wage bill almost as big as their total revenue what will happen. They are surely along with Chelsea going to come a croppa.
      waltonl4
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      Re: Paul Tomkins meets John W Henry
      Reply #468: Nov 03, 2010 03:13:27 pm
      I understand the principals of break even financials but what penalties are there Chelsea and City dont stand a chance of breaking even and ManUTD have just lost ÂŁ80mil it sounds great but I reckon it will have no powers to enforce.
      ozi_wozzy
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      Re: Paul Tomkins meets John W Henry
      Reply #469: Nov 03, 2010 03:16:15 pm
      My problem is just that you have highlighted Football is a crazy f**king madness of a business and he seems to think he can sort that out or apply his US sports principals to it. Did he not see what happend with Rooney utter madness. Saying you will not work like that is admirable but just as bonkers as the Rooney situation in reverse.It has become a Billionaires play thing we must now accept if I am right that we cannot compete with Chelsea.City, Man U.
      He will be a very frustrated man I fhe thinks he can apply any sort of logic to this sport especailly herein England and we will have to get used to missing out on lots of our transfer targets because people with deeper pockets will get their first.
      Please tell me I am wrong.

      i agree with some of this but essentially, the game hasn't really become a billionnaire's playground. chavski and citeh are the only ones with filthy rich benefactors and their model will suffer if uefa's financial fare play rules come on board.

      across the continent, how many clubs have billionnaire owners? milans perhaps? who else?

      scum, ar$e and sperms all have a model where they invest cash they generally generate or borrow. i'm not going to get excited and jump on the bandwagon and of course henry's comments so far have been what we want to hear. but we need to be patient and see if actions match the words. initial signs of engaging with fans and supporter groups is deffo a good thing.
      waltonl4
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      Re: Paul Tomkins meets John W Henry
      Reply #470: Nov 03, 2010 03:19:09 pm
      Are you sure that the Eufa financial model will be implemented Chelsea and City no chance of breaking even Utd just lost ÂŁ80mil half the EPL will fall foul and how can Blackpool compete with gates of 15,000 against UTD 75,000 it just dosent all add up to me.Its good PR but will it be enforced.
      KennyIsKing
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      Re: The Official Paul Tomkins Thread
      Reply #471: Nov 03, 2010 07:00:25 pm
      I understand the principals of break even financials but what penalties are there Chelsea and City dont stand a chance of breaking even and ManUTD have just lost ÂŁ80mil it sounds great but I reckon it will have no powers to enforce.

      The sanctions that I've read include no CL - although I am probably wrong.

      Fact is, the only way forwards for football is for clubs to live within their means, and that means the 3 clubs you mentioned will be fu**ed without huge injections of TV revenue, along with Barca, Real and probably a few others.

      IMO it will be enforced, and then it is up to clubs at the highest levels to identify young players and bring them through, without the spectre of loosing them to huge transfer fees.

      Blackpool will actually move closer to the likes of manu, because their overheads are not as big.

      That's the way I see it...
      corballyred
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      Re: The Official Paul Tomkins Thread
      Reply #472: Nov 03, 2010 08:32:19 pm
      So he is obviously following what Paul Tomkins writes, if he is If I was Roy Hodgson I would be very frightened. Tomkins is not a fan of Hodgson.
      stuey
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      Re: The Official Paul Tomkins Thread
      Reply #473: Nov 03, 2010 09:59:17 pm
      The fact that JH sought Tomkins out is encouraging to say the very least. Unlike the previous hated owners he is making a conscious effort to ingratiate himself with the supporters by meeting someone who has an in depth knowledge of the club and is held in high esteem by the same supporters.
      Further indication that unlike the other lying bas**rds NESV do not speak with forked tongue and are committed to the long term development of LFC.
      BLEED_RED
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      Re: The Official Paul Tomkins Thread
      Reply #474: Nov 04, 2010 05:46:06 pm
      Are you sure that the Eufa financial model will be implemented Chelsea and City no chance of breaking even Utd just lost ÂŁ80mil half the EPL will fall foul and how can Blackpool compete with gates of 15,000 against UTD 75,000 it just dosent all add up to me.Its good PR but will it be enforced.

      If you read through the Financial Fair Play Rules it states that the "Break Even Concept" dictates that clubs should not be able to REPEATEDLY spend outside of their means. This means that lower income earner clubs will be able to make splurg purchases and spend beyond their return for that year, but it prevents clubs like Chelsea, Man City, and Man Utd from using their massive credit as leverage to fund 30m pound transfers. They hope this will make clubs youth systems more important and help smaller clubs focus more on their stadium's increasing the quality of the venues, along with the quality of the connection players have to their club. Its actually quite brilliant if it works as intended.

      We here are very serious fans who take the youth and reserve team seriously. For the common fan though they have no vested interest in watching the development of Shelvey, Kelly, Pacheco Etc. These new rules will make a more casual fan take notice, and nurture a stronger relationship with the club and players. Its the "Barcelona Effect" essentially. i.e. Half their starting 11 are from their youth ranks with many other top class players around the globe coming from their youth academy.
      corballyred
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      Re: The Official Paul Tomkins Thread
      Reply #475: Nov 04, 2010 05:58:00 pm
      There is still a long way to go before that rule is implemented in the way we hope. I feel NESV plans revolve around it being implemented.
      philH
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      Re: The Official Paul Tomkins Thread
      Reply #476: Nov 06, 2010 04:05:51 pm
      Totally agree with the comments of Stuey above Impressed with the way Henry, has met up with people like Tomkins and the SOS group, and wants to listen to what the supporters have to say. It will be a steep learning curve for them but confident that the club is at last in safe hands
      Adryan
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      One Third Season Review
      Reply #477: Nov 15, 2010 04:18:31 pm
      1/3rd Season Review

      A third of the Premier League season, and not even a third of games won. That’s how bad it’s been.

      Liverpool won just three of the first 10 league matches, and in the next three, it’s been only one win. There’s a pattern present. Roy Hodgson sees the Stoke result as a ‘blip’, but when you’ve failed to win nine of 13 games, the blip appears to be the victories.

      Maybe he’s spent too long as a big fish in a small pond. His own words tend to prove the theory.

      After the Chelsea game, I promised to tone down my criticisms of Roy – unless there was a dramatic downturn in results.

      Well, the two performances following what should have been the biggest morale-boosting win the manager was likely to get have been simply unacceptable. The Reds then took the lead early at Wigan, and from that moment on, it’s been unbearable to watch.

      Yes, it’s just two games on, but so appalling have they been – as were so many before the Chelsea game – that the victory over the champions looks more the exception than the rule.

      My ‘fear’ – outlined in that same piece – was the Napoli and Chelsea results were based on the NESV ‘bounce’: a buzzing Anfield, welcoming our new owners.

      We didn’t get the usual new manager upturn that statistics prove happens in the first 8-10 games, when results pick up due to the desire to impress the new boss; but we appeared to get something resembling it during the week that John W Henry and his wife Linda Pizzuti were gracing games.

      But as soon as their backs were turned, so did the results and performances: turning back to the early-season ‘norm’.

      After Chelsea, I felt six wins from nine games would get us to ‘acceptable’ – 10 wins from 20; a fraction ahead of Benítez’s worst full-season figure of 45% of games won (2004/05, although with the Champions League won at the same time) and 47% (2009/10), but nowhere near his best of 66% (2005/06 and 2008/09), or his overall average of 55%.

      But now, it would need six wins from seven just to reach 50%. Currently, the Reds have won just 31% of league matches; less than a third, and even slightly worse than Hodgson’s record at Fulham.

      Last season, the Cottagers averaged a fraction above a uninspiring goal a game in the league (39 in 38 games; not a good total even for a club like Fulham). Right now, Liverpool’s average is even worse: exactly one goal per game.

      He’s been given Torres, Gerrard, Kuyt and Aquilani (oops) and brought in Cole and Meireles, only to score 13 in 13. Bolton have 22; Newcastle 21; Blackpool 19. West Brom have 16. Even Stoke have 15. Only two teams have scored fewer goals than Liverpool in the league.

      Possession has been far worse this season.

      Defenders are sitting deeper, and despite two incredibly narrow midfielders, the full-backs aren’t even compensating by overlapping as much.

      It’s cowardly football; ‘underdog football’, which is more likely to work against Chelsea – against whom fans will just about tolerate the side conceding possession at Anfield – than weaker teams.

      Let’s take a closer look at where it’s going wrong:

      13-Game Premier League Analysis by TTT regular and professional data analyst Dan Kennett

      With one third of the season gone, LFC are performing as badly as they’ve ever done in the Premier League era:

      ¡       16 points is the joint-lowest total along with Souness in 1992/93

      ¡       13 goals scored is the fewest

      ¡       Four games won is the joint-fewest along with 1992/93 and the ill-fated Houllier/Evans joint tenure in 1998/99

      ¡       -4 is the worst goal difference we’ve had at this stage of the season

      ¡       12th position in the league is the second worst, after 1992/93

      ¡       Five defeats is the joint-highest along with seven other seasons (including last season)

      ¡       We’ve got only HALF the number of points we had at this stage in 2008/09

      If we compare against the median of Liverpool’s Premier League record after 13 games then Hodgson is behind on every single measure, apart from number of clean sheets:



      Even against last season’s dismal campaign, this season is worse almost across the board.

      Last season’s points total of 20 was below the median and acknowledged as a poor start. However at least the fans had the solace of seeing some entertaining games and, of course, there was an injury crisis to contend with.

      LFC had banged in 29 goals already (compared to 13 this season) and the 20 goals against meant an average of 3.8 goals per game.



      At the moment we’ve got the worst of both worlds: shocking results and shocking entertainment.

      All Hodgson had to do was recreate a typical LFC start and we’d be sitting pretty in 4th. Even maintaining the “disastrous” performance of last season would’ve seen us in 5th. That Liverpool sit in 11th place after 13 games in this of all seasons is the most damning indictment of all.


      Further Analysis

      Adding to Dan’s work above, I’d like to point out a few more things.

      In the exact same 13 fixtures (replacing promoted sides with those promoted last season), the Reds were five points better off in 2009/10: 21 to 16. So what was gained against Chelsea has been more than lost elsewhere. And again, last season was deemed unacceptable.

      One bonus Roy has is that he doesn’t have to play a strong team in the Europa League; last season – and indeed, every season under Benítez – there was the far trickier balancing act of keeping players fresh; no-one would accept a total ‘B’ team in the Champions League or Premier League (unless it was late in the season and there was little left to play for.)

      In the summer I noted that Roy’s lack of rotation would be problematic. On one of the few occasions where he’s been under pressure to win weekend-midweek-weekend, results went from a win to a draw to a defeat.

      He noted that the midweek result – 1-1 at Wigan – was affected by tiredness (he didn’t change the team that ran hard against Chelsea), and then made only one change against Stoke – replacing the young, fit Kelly to move the far less mobile Carragher to full-back where, presumably, he was not going to find getting up and down the pitch at all easy.

      You’ve just admitted your team is tired, yet you do nothing to freshen it up. The art of rotation is to keep altering two or three players, and being flexible enough in your approach to see that.

      Creative Abyss

      Hodgson also bemoaned the lack of creativity against Stoke, and said that the forwards needed to work harder to help make that possible.

      Well, Fernando Torres had just scored three goals in his previous two appearances, but in each – as at Stoke – he was expected to chase high punts, long balls and lost causes. No wonder he looked jaded and disinterested. You don’t take possession of a thoroughbred and use him as a carthorse.

      Look at the team: two full-backs not known for getting forward, and two honest centre-backs who are purely stoppers. Creativity? Zero. Agger was frozen out before his injury, Johnson not trusted even before he was publicly criticised. Insua, who was leading the league table in full-back assists last season up until the spring (six, from open play), is now in Turkey. How are you going to create from the back?

      In midfield, the talented Meireles is playing so narrow and so deep he might as well be back in his erstwhile defensive midfield role, alongside Lucas. Gone is the more creative Aquilani, who was the league’s top assist-maker in the second half of last season and is arguably the best midfielder in Italy this season (Juventus fans seem to think so).


      There just isn’t any width or any pace. If you’re going to play with unadventurous full-backs who won’t overlap, and yet won’t use the pace and trickery of Jovanovic or Babel, then it’s going to get very stodgy.

      Add that the clever little Dani Pacheco appears to have been sent to Coventry (not even on loan, mind), and that the regular goalscorer and creator Benayoun (who wanted out) was replaced by the fading light of Joe Cole, and it’s no wonder that Liverpool have become unbearable to watch.

      To lose to Stoke is one thing; to be outplayed by them quite another.

      So blaming Torres is just one more way to shift blame and alienate top-class players who can see through a limited, dull system that works well for underdogs like Fulham, but is patently unsuited to a team expected to win more than 30% of games.

      Here’s further statistical analysis (by Andrew Beasley, TTT’s ‘Beezdog’) of one aspect of the problems we’ve been suffering under Roy.

      So far, Liverpool have played 13 league games. If you exclude the 0-0 with Birmingham, that leaves 12 games where Liverpool have either scored first or conceded first.

      Scored First

      P7 W4 D3 L0 F10 A5 GD +5 Pts 15 Pts per game 2.14

      Conceded First

      P5 W0 D0 L5 F3 A12 GD -9 Pts 0 Pts per game 0

      This appears to be a fairly damning indictment of Roy’s ‘Plan A only’ approach. The only one of the five games we conceded first in and made any vague comeback was Man Utd away where we got level at 2-2 before conceding again. So if Plan A works we get at least a draw from the match, and if it doesn’t, we get nothing.

      (Note: in Europe the Reds have twice managed to come from behind to win games. But Hodgson was brought in to improve league form; the Reds made the semi-final of the Europa League last season and no-one saw it as compensation.)

      Conclusion

      So, with help from Dan and Andrew, it’s possible to see where things have been going wrong.

      Yet again, all the stats are reminiscent of the problem under Houllier, when the Reds never came from behind to win in his final five seasons (in the league). When BenĂ­tez took over, it was achieved in his very first league home game, and then again a couple of months later, away at Fulham (2-0 down, won 4-2, despite being down to 10 men). By this stage last season the Reds had come from behind to beat Bolton.

      Liverpool’s home record was at its worst in the Premier League era under Houllier, but so far, Hodgson has won only half of his Anfield league matches.


      There has to be a serious argument for replacing the manager as soon as possible, to bring in a younger, more modern and adventurous man, in order to give him the rest of the season to bed in and plan ahead.

      The benefits of waiting include possibly improving the chances of other managers becoming available (though Liverpool can ‘make’ them available) and, of course, taking time to get the decision right.

      But right now, with so many players unhappy with the manager – and most of the talented players, at that – and almost all of the fans sick of the horrible football that’s been served up, holding on could do more damage.

      http://tomkinstimes.com/2010/11/third-world-football-13rd-season-review/

      I've edited the original text because some sentences are links to other articles by Paul.
      waltonl4
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      Re: One Third Season Review
      Reply #478: Nov 15, 2010 04:25:48 pm
      So to cut to the chase Roy is sh*t whichever way you want to look at it.
      MIRO
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      Re: One Third Season Review
      Reply #479: Nov 15, 2010 04:28:52 pm
      Woah.
      Some info.
      Where are you Debs?
      Think we should be shifting emails into John Henry and Co. with the above.



      The Killer:
      All Hodgson had to do was recreate a typical LFC start and we’d be sitting pretty in 4th.

      If the owners are into statistics then Stat This.
      « Last Edit: Nov 15, 2010 04:35:20 pm by eurored »
      JD
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      Re: The Official Paul Tomkins Thread
      Reply #480: Nov 15, 2010 06:39:01 pm
      The conceded first stat is ominous.

      Really does show the lack of plan B, and an alarming lack of fight in the PL.
      Dannylfc
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      Re: The Official Paul Tomkins Thread
      Reply #481: Nov 15, 2010 10:55:29 pm
      Another top aritcle by Tomkins, really hope John Henry reads them.
      smigger15
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      Re: The Official Paul Tomkins Thread
      Reply #482: Dec 22, 2010 10:05:06 pm
      His take on Rafa's return

      http://tomkinstimes.com/2010/12/the-return-of-rafa/

      With Rafa’s apparent departure from Inter Milan, there’s a growing bandwagon calling for his return to the Liverpool hot seat. For some, that time can’t come soon enough. But as ever, it’s a complex issue.

      Rory Smith’s article in the Telegraph neatly articulates both sides of the argument, and it’s well known which side I fall on. But the vital fact is that there will always be some kind of argument; it seems there’s little middle ground. (Oliver Kay also wrote an excellent piece that appears in the latest edition of the excellent Well Red Magazine, discussing the way the media views both Benítez and Hodgson.)

      I find the notion that Benítez is anything less than an excellent manager baffling; always have, always will. That a man who has won every type of trophy available – domestic league title (twice, in a major league, with an outsider), domestic cup, domestic ‘super cup’ (Community Shield), Uefa Cup, European Cup, European Super Cup and now World Club Championship (and also improved Liverpool in the league to levels not seen for two decades) – is somehow an incompetent duffer is just ludicrous. He has his faults, but that is some CV, and all achieved since Roy Hodgson’s last trophy in 2001.

      By last season, thanks to the awful owners Hicks and Gillett, Liverpool were selling more players than they were buying. Then there was Chief Executive Christian Purslow, who had no prior experience of running a football club, and whose decisions in the summer left a lot to be desired; the good he did in helping to oust the owners was undone by a short-sighted approach to the footballing side of things.

      So it was against this backdrop that Liverpool experienced what was deemed an ‘unacceptable’ season, even though the Reds performed better in terms of winning games (18) and gaining points (63) than in the final year of Houllier’s reign (just 16 wins and 60 points). Indeed, even if you average out Houllier’s final two seasons, it still equals only 62.5, a fraction less than the 2009/10 total of 63. (Rafa’s final two seasons saw an average that was ten points better than Houllier’s full six-season average.) Currently, the Reds are on course for just 49 points, well below last year’s figure.

      My view was that Rafa was an exceptional manager whose job at Liverpool had probably become untenable because of the general dysfunctional nature of the club, and because several players wanted him out. Even Mourinho at Chelsea found such a confluence of such factors hard to live with; results started to dip, and he was sent packing.

      Had NESV arrived at the end of last season, I think (and it’s just a hunch) that Rafa would still be manager today. I can only guess at how the relationships would have unfolded; I can see similarity in vision (the desire to buy young players on the way up and produce a successful Academy, and the possession of a winning mentality), but also potential clashes, given that few managers are happy to work with a Director of Football. But I think Benítez had a similar approach to Comolli, judging by their track records in the transfer market.

      But of course, part of the reason why Benítez became seen as a megalomaniac is because there was a distinct lack of football knowledge at the top of the club: a vacuum of suitable thinking, with clueless owners and rookies running the club; and because, until 2009, he couldn’t make the necessary changes to an under-performing youth system, which was producing tight-knit teams full of endeavour, but no first-team talent. Even now, no youngster released by the club has gone on to become a proper Premier League star, let alone Liverpool standard (although after a few years away, Adam Hammill shows some promise.)

      Benítez started to micro-manage everything because that need arose, and because he is a perfectionist (which can be a flaw as well as a virtue). He clashed with Rick Parry and Steve Heighway over the Academy, but to my mind, rightly so; just look at the talent that’s there now, as well as the Barcelona gurus running the institution. This will prove the Spaniard’s greatest legacy for the club, I’m sure. None of this is to say that he didn’t make mistakes, but arguably no more than any other top manager makes.

      While I think that NESV would have stuck with Rafa, and given him the support needed to succeed, bringing him back now is a very different issue. It’s one thing to keep someone, because it changes little, and you can finesse things behind the scenes; it’s quite another to sack someone and bring someone else back to a club where, for all his allies, he retains some enemies.

      The same old wounds would be opened up, and if the media were rabid in their treatment of him beforehand, you can only imagine how they’d be if one of their darlings was replaced by ‘the nasty foreigner’. (Of course, the club shouldn’t be swayed by the media, but they do add another layer of pressure.)

      How Rafa performed at Inter does not alter my perceptions of how he performed at Liverpool. Essentially, with a mountain of injuries (no priests or sugar in sight), he had, after a promising start, experienced something similar to Capello in the summer: one bad month. Prior to the first game against Spurs his team’s style of play was being applauded, and but for a remarkable few minutes from Gareth Bale, a thrashing would have been all that people remembered from that particular game. Instead, Inter hit a wobble.

      As it was, with a tired, aging team, he still qualified for the knockout stages of the Champions League for the 7th time in his personal eight appearances in the groups, and won the World Club Championship. The league form was average, but it ignores that the likes of AC Milan and Juventus were injecting a lot of new quality into the ranks, whereas Inter had instead sold Italian football’s best young player (Balotelli) and, with an aged squad, brought in no one of note. (For more on the issue, see this informative article for an interest assessment of his time in Italy.)

      I have no doubt that Liverpool traded down in the summer. The biggest crime of Benítez’s replacement has been a failure to understand the approach demanded at one of the biggest clubs in the world; everything he’s done so far would be perfect for Fulham – where he excelled – but, to date, has been a total mismatch for Liverpool.

      But he still has the job, and any manager who remains in his position always has the chance to prove his critics wrong. For as long as he remains it is his duty to try and get things right, and that includes the not-so-small task of adapting an approach and playing style that very few fans will ever accept.

      (Even Bolton Wanderers fans – starved of success for decades longer than Kopites – were unhappy with such an approach, the entire time Gary Megson was there, even though they kept their head above water. Liverpool fans don’t want needlessly flashy football, but they do want a style they can buy into. On that score, Hodgson has yet to even come close to delivering, as evinced by a negative goal difference. It is his style of play and his comments to the media that have seen him fail to win the hearts and minds. Very quickly, Owen Coyle has done the exact opposite at Bolton, and while that doesn’t mean he could definitely do the same at Liverpool, it shows how a new approach with the same set of players can make all the difference.)

      Rafa’s return to his home on Merseyside perhaps puts more pressure on Hodgson, but the current Liverpool manager has had a relatively easy ride from the media so far; if he thinks he’s under pressure, he has yet to face dealing with regular attacks from all the national papers (each one had at least one serial Benítez baiter) and from Sky Sports, whose key presenters were best pals with Rafa’s nemesis, Sam Allardyce, and others in the LMA cartel. Yes, the Kop chanted Kenny Dalglish’s name, but it’s not been non-stop attacks that Hodgson has had to field, despite some pretty big failings on the evidence so far. (Of course, I’d much rather see a Liverpool manager with the media on his side, but not to excuse mediocrity and a failure to grasp what’s required, and imply that Liverpool fans are daft as a result.)

      It shows how much the area means to the Spaniard; his intention was always to return to the Wirral. To quote Anfield Road writer Andrew Heaton: “I also think Rafa’s ‘weakness’ of ‘fighting for what you believe in’ was what the unbreakable bond with the city and supporters was forged upon”.

      Again, this is where Hodgson has fallen short, perhaps by trying to be too diplomatic, so as to not upset anyone within the game (including the FA, whom he had hoped would be his employers this summer, with the position of England manager apparently still his main dream).

      But you only have to look at how ‘diplomatic’ Alex Ferguson is to anyone who criticises either him or his club to see how standing up for your club (and by proxy, its fans) is essential. Perhaps Benítez picked too many fights, but it’s better than having no fight at all. He fought for the fans, and most appreciate that. Ferguson, Mourinho, Benítez and even Wenger often get into verbal spats with adversaries because they share a certain mentality. They don’t get into them in order to get an historic draw, either.

      In the meantime, Roy Hodgson remains in charge, and I don’t see that changing before the summer at the earliest. He deserves to be backed in the transfer market in the way that any other manager does, but Damien Comolli must make sure that, unlike the raft of older players brought in during the summer (most of whom were average at best, and have contributed to a poor season), the signings must be flexible enough to serve the club beyond Hodgson’s tenure.

      And then, in the summer, NESV will be able to sit down and make an informed decision about how Hodgson performed based on the entire year, and take a good look at the viable alternatives. I very much doubt that Benítez’s name will be on the list of potential candidates, should a new manager be sought – but that doesn’t mean his time definitely won’t come again. In football, you never know.

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