My dates with the Alonso thing were wrong, the fallout over his mrs labor was in the 2007/8 season so it would seem that was where the relationship with benitez started to fall apart.
Gerrard: I would have stayed as a coach
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Gerrard's a strange mixture of humility and megalomania. He seems to resent Benitez because he treated him like an ordinary member of the team, but he despises other players for acting as if they're bigger than their team. There's no self-awareness there. It's probably significant, too, that he appears so disinclined to mention Dalglish. He was happy to get Dalglish to vouch for his character when he had that court case, but when Kenny returned to the club Gerrard seemed a bit lukewarm in his reaction. Maybe there's a tiny bit ofjealously there. Kenny came out with a fulsome tribute when Gerrard announced he was leaving, but even Hodgson gets more space and praise in the book than Kenny does.
Good post - by some distance the most balanced and convincing summary of the Alonso business that I've read on here.
Absolutely. Gerrard also bought into the media sniping about Rafa playing him on the right rather than in the middle, making it obvious that he was disgruntled about the whole thing. He would go onto have a season where he scored about 20 and had a bag full of assists. It was arguably his best season.
Indeed all the players wanted to go but Alonso was the one that was effectively forced out of the door
I don't agree, old pal. In my book Alonso was as much to blame as Rafa. One can legitimately disagree with Rafa's decision and support Alonso's insistence on absenting himself to be with his wife but, once Rafa as manager made the decision, Alonso knew what the consequences of ignoring it would be and was poorly placed to get a cob on about them. Added to that, as time went on Rafa (most unusually for him) made public statements trying to repair the breech. Alonso could easily have changed his mind at that point and IMO it's on him, not on Rafa, that he didn't.
Maybe at the end of the 2007/8 season but when he went at the end of 2008/9 Benitez had changed his mind and wanted to keep him (plenty of quotes about him not being for sale at that time). I think the size of the fee and the players preference to leave effectively decided things.
Rafa wanted Keane and Barry but didn't get the money to sign both so he needed to sell one of our most valuable players. Rafa didn't even get to see the Xabi money. Our owners had some rent on a loan to pay. In January Keane was sold to........pay the rent. If Xabi hadn't been sold then one of Gerrard or Torres would have been sold to pay the rent. The only three players we could get enough money for to pay the rent.
Maybe Mr Gerrard should remember that we at the time had Gillett and Hicks as owners.
Maybe Mr Gerrard should remember that we at the time had Gillett and Hicks as owners.
The story that was peddled was that Rafa wanted Keane to play with Barry but only if we in fact got Barry, which we didn't. It was like Rafa took his frustration out on Parry and co by mistreating Keane to a certain extent. Keane missed a few chances (remember the back heal attempt) but he scored a cracker against Arsenal and a brace against WBA. I remember him scoring two against WBA but then he was 'dropped' for the next game and was never allowed build up momentum. Which was a silly thing to do as Keane is a streaky enough player so play him while he's hot.
Redknapp was willing to take him back in Jan for just under what we paid for him and we washed our hands of him.
A very odd transfer all round and one we received no real benefit from.
Redknapp was willing to take him back in Jan for just under what we paid for him and we washed our hands of him.
A very odd transfer all round and one we received no real benefit from.
Rafa probably knew that he would have to sell Keane in January to pay the rent on the loan. He could of course sold Gerrard, Torres or Mascherano instead but I doubt that anyone think that he made the wrong choice selling Keane.
The key in all this the loan and the rent on the loan. Rafa needed to make a profit his last two seasons. As long as he could spend say £20m+ net a season then we were the most feared team in Europe. He could get some of the best players in the world signing for us.
I respect Rafa because he respect the club and the fans. He is one of us.
The key in all this the loan and the rent on the loan. Rafa needed to make a profit his last two seasons. As long as he could spend say £20m+ net a season then we were the most feared team in Europe. He could get some of the best players in the world signing for us.
I respect Rafa because he respect the club and the fans. He is one of us.
I wouldn't say any of our past managers did not have the utmost respect for the club and fans - I liked Rafa a lot - but he just went mental and stubborn
I know that if any people in this world, past or present, is important enough to get me to read his story, he 99% certainly didnt change The world by being overpaid footballer. So no....
The serialised quotes are interesting, I think, because this man might be in the running to manage us one day and they're quite revealing.
Anyway, Rafa has responded with a style that Stevie ought to try to copy from now on:
'Out of the respect that I have for Stevie and for the value and appreciation I have for him, and for Liverpool and the supporters, I think it's best to just let it pass.'
Anyway, Rafa has responded with a style that Stevie ought to try to copy from now on:
'Out of the respect that I have for Stevie and for the value and appreciation I have for him, and for Liverpool and the supporters, I think it's best to just let it pass.'
Love that he called him stevie rather than Gerrard.
Complete set of quotes from Rafa
Rafa on Gerrard's quotes on him in his new book: "I have read the quotes and I believe he is wrong."
Rafa: "Out of the respect that I have for Stevie and for Liverpool and the supporters, I think it's best to just let it pass."
Rafa: "Gerrard has brought out a book and now I'm the Real Madrid manager, that sells."
Made Gerrard look small time here.
There's absolutely nothing about Gerrard that makes me think he'd be a good coach.
The timing of this books stinks.
You'd never see Kenny do this.
I've lost what little respect for Gerrard I had left.
You'd never see Kenny do this.
I've lost what little respect for Gerrard I had left.
He doesn't even play for us anymore, so I don't know why the timing is an issue. It's really not like his book makes us look worse than the shite we're serving up on the pitch at the moment. And he couldn't possibly have known, a few months back when the decision was made to serialize the book, that poor old Brendan would still have us playing like a bunch of strangers meeting up for the first time at Anfield 10 minutes prior to kick off.
Yup, it reminds me alot of Roy Keane, he can't keep his gob shut (or stop sulking) enough to get on with people in such a high profile job. He sounds pretty bitter tbh, he's left the club he adores so much, so the first thing he does is bring out a book to pick the bones out of it at quite possibly the worst possible time. Yeah thanks for that, Captain Fantastic.
Well, he has carried a team before.
Nothing? Come on, there's a few things. He has the respect of most players, he knows a lot about football, he's used to developing good relationships with players, and he's obviously driven and focused.
That puts him above a lot of coaches out there already. I'm not sure he'd turn out to be a great one, but he certainly has it in him to be a good one.
I agree with Farkmaster.
Bad communicator, moody fucker, all about himself.
He'd be Roy Keane mark 2 as a manager
I'm with Farky on this. For one thing the evidence about Stevie developing good relationships with players is patchy (there was contrary on-field evidence as well during his time as skipper). For another: respect, knowledge, drive and focus are all well and good on their own terms, but ultimately valueless without the ability to communicate in a way which improves the players being coached, and his time as skipper was not encouraging in that respect either. In my book it's far from certain that he has it in him to translate his particular strengths into a coaching role.
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