Best Wishes Rafa - you served us well

I like Rafa - always have done, always will. But I'm not bothered that he has gone - he was expendable in my opinion.

He bought some fantastic players, changed our Academy structure (though no big results yet) and believed in the Liverpool name. Just like Houllier did. He won some cups, won some big games (inc humbling United) and almost won the title. Just like Houllier did. He also made some big fat errors, glaring mistakes and lost the support of the Kop over recent months. Just like...you guessed it.

He will always be bought a drink by me, i will always want to spend a week learning his methods, but that is because I look up to him. The trouble is though that I'm not sure the players did.

No-one is bigger than Liverpool and though it sounds Real Madrid-ish I only care about the players and how they perform. We do not know if Rafa going will have convinced key players to stay or go - only they can tell us that. But just like Gerrard or Torres or Masch going, Liverpool is bigger than that.
The biggest risk to my happiness is whether Liverpool DO stay bigger than one man, and that is about the Yanks leaving. Everything else pales into comparison when you consider our very existence is in danger.

Rafa Benitez sacked?

If rumours are to be believed, then tonight's news about a board meeting to decide Rafa Benitez's future are causing all manner of fury, joy and mixed emotions on Twitter.

My inital thoughts were to be horrified. First of all, it is 'not the Liverpool Way' so sara_not_sarah says. ErinNYC75 says that "Anybody who is happy to see Rafa go is delusional". Meanwhile plenty of people back the idea and happily joke that Sven will be next for his yearly pay deal.

It made me think. First of all about Rafa, secondly about his potential replacements.

Rafa had a terrible first season losing 14 league games, losing to Burnley in the third round of the FA Cup, but succeeding admirably in the European Cup.

Rafa had an ok second season, the high point being the FA Cup win, low points being 25 points behind the title winners, League Cup early exit to Crystal Palace and a pitiful defeat to Benfica in the Euro Cup.

Following that things improved including the close run 2009 league campaign, but faltered terribly in 2010. My point here is that one Euro Cup and one FA Cup doesn't make a hero. However he has definately improved the squad to the point where I wouldn't change 8 players out of 11 for anybody else. He loves Liverpool, he has improved the Academy coaches, and started to blood youngsters and/or make money out of them. It's been a very mixed 6 years with a pretty damn good win ratio.

What of his potential replacement then? Ironic perhaps that Rafa may have indeed hired his (temporary) replacement in Kenny Dalglish. I see the King as the only viable (cheap) option to take over, inspire the troops and regain some faith from the Kop. I simply won't entertain the ideas of Martin O'Neill, Sven or even Sammy Lee; and I very much doubt Roy Hodgson, Fabio Capello or Harry Redknapp would even remotely consider it themselves.

But the only things I care about is the club itself - which will be sorted with the Yanks exit - and the players - which is the innteresting bit.

Torres refused to blatantly commit to Liverpool. Gerrard has refused to blatantly admit that he will stay, instead changing his previous quotes of playing til he was 33, to now wanting to play til 35...interestingly JUST after Mourinho claims to love mid-30s players who are English...

The question for me is not what the fans want - we don't turn up to training every day, nor take the corners, hit the shots or have the be motivated each day. Torres, Gerrard, Kuyt, Carragher, Mascherano etc all do those jobs and need to believe in their boss. Some would say they love Benitez and want him to stay. Some would say that they have lsot faith in the boss and want him to leave. The signals I have seen over the last 6 months is the latter. Carra was furious after Istanbul that he didn't get a wage raise, and won't be too happy that a contract is not on the table given his service. Gerrard loves attacking football and was delirious with confusion over the Torres substitution vs Bham City. Torres credits Benitez a great deal with his progression, but hasn't yet won a trophy in his career.

Somewhere in there I think you have your answer. The players don't want Rafa, and maybe the board have therefore acted. All I know is that 7th is unacceptable for Liverpool WHOEVER is in charge.

The Lowest Point in 15 years

A great deal has happened since I last blogged, and I have been avidly following every twist and turn expecting each one to end in a huge revelation I could offer an opinion on. Instead we find ourselves in a horrible state of limbo.

Owners
As our Player of the Year Pepe Reina neatly put it, a change in ownership is vital to Liverpool's progression. For all of Rafa's ills and annoyances, the element without debate is the uncertainty, the lack of actual investment and vacancy of direction provided by Messrs Gillett and Hicks. In taking on Martin Broughton to sell the club and act as a central figurehead whilst their worlds crumble around them, the club is officially up for sale. And judging by the conversations on the Kop, the 'I don't know' press conferences of Rafa Benitez, and the complete feeling of hopelessness and despair etched on the faces of Carragher, Gerrard and Reina this season - it cannot come too soon.

I will say however, that for all the desire in the world to get new owners, it must be 100% correct as we cannot bear another 3 years like this.

Benitez
I've not been a fan of Rafa these last few weeks - my turning point was the defeat to Reading, on the back of 6 months of bereft confidence that should have been turned around earlier. I've always been happy with his transfers, I've always believed that he loves the club, but have been befuddled by his tactics and man-management.

Right now a change in ownership is far more important as it immediately affects the players, the fans, the manager, the international footballing brand that is Liverpool and the ongoing history of the club. A change in manager only really affects a couple of those factors and he's done *enough* in the last few years to be given another chance within a proper club environment. when you rebuild a house you need to start at the foundations, not at the colour of the front door.

Gerrard
Recently I have heard fans call for Gerrard to be sold - to cash in on a great asset and move on. Those same fans need shooting.

Captain Fantastic, Mister Liverpool and in my opinion the greatest player to wear the red shirt, has not had a good season. He's been in and out of the team due to injury, openly admits it takes him a while to come back to form, and has then been saddled with an unstable and unconfident team within which to find his form. Put simply you do not sell your best players in order to be the best. A strong club would merely give Gerrard a rest and gentle route back into the team whilst replacing him with a player of equal stature. Like Chelsea can do with Ballack/Lampard, Man City with Tevez/Bellamy, even Tottenham have done this season with Defoe/Pavlyuchenko. Knee jerk reactions like these can make you pull a muscle yourself.

Benitez admits to making mistakes at Liverpool

So the BBC reports. It's like he's been following all the blogs, columns and Steven Gerrard's expressions for the last 6 months.

None of us want Rafa to go. Because if he does, it means that he has ultimately failed and that will not be a good thing for Liverpool Football Club. Of COURSE he has made mistakes, of course things have gone wrong when he genuinely expected them to go right - that makes him human. But the position of Manager of Liverpool Football Club is not a job for any regular human being. Shankly was not a regular man, neither was Paisley, nor Fagan, nor Dalglish. Only a couple of them had to genuinely cope with the incredible pressure that comes with the job, but none of them brought the pressure on themselves like the imcumbent.

I like Rafa Benitez. In fact I really like Rafa Benitez and I am aware that this blog has turned into a mini-tirade against a mighty man. This man taught me the importance of continued high level performance in my job off my own back, the importance of statistics in proving outcomes (which all my colleagues will testify to), and genuinely understands the power and importance of Liverpool Football Club. He is one of our sons, because like Gerard Houllier before him, he is a fan of the club and not a mercenary.

Maybe this semi-apology (you will never get a full apology from Rafa) is a step towards latent humility. Maybe it is a defence after the scathing actions of his top two players this week, but the bottom line for me is that it speaks the truth. Rafa had made mistakes, and I for one can pinpoint about 20 serious mistakes that an above-human manager would not have made.

Self-awareness is one gracious quality. Self-improvement is what we need now.

The screws turn tighter at Liverpool

It's almost becoming monotonous. A good week turns into a bad week which turns into a good week.

The school report card for the good performance in Portugal surely reads "Could do better". Meanwhile the headlines after the disappointing Birmingham City draw focussed heavily on the substitution of Fernando Torres who - whilst the manager suggested he was tired - other reports clearly differ. The head-scratching, forlorn and frustrated look of Steven Gerrard as Torres *runs* off tells me that the senior Spaniard got it very very wrong. Take a look yourself. What's most interesting is Torres' shake of the head to Lucas who then moments later looks bemused himself.

Matt Lawrence clearly believes it's Gerrard or Benitez to leave Anfield this summer.

I wouldn't be so sensationalist as to suggest it's do or die, as players are usually more humble in these exchanges, although after Albert Riera's outburst only weeks ago only a fool would ignore the smoke completely. But ask Jamie Carragher over a beer in his local, or Javier Mascherano whilst his pen lingers above contracual papers, and serious questions must be being uttered in the halls of Melwood.

I work on web projects, and if my best designer was taken off a vitally important and high profile project halfway through, believe me I would be furious. I would be feeling very alone indeed.

With Juventus still reportedly interested, I am very sorry and disappointed to say that it's "Adios y Gracias" from me.

Where there's a hope, there's a way

In FourFourTwo this month, Jamie Carragher says that the 'stadium isn't too far away now'.

This is certainly news to me and thousands of other Liverpool fans who have waited so long to hear of new investment and the next 5 year plan. In a way it's a good thing that we don't know - finally Liverpool are operating behind closed doors again, staying one step ahead of the opposition by completing their business prior to any press conference. Who knows, tomorrow I might find out that Mourinho is taking over in June, and we're signing Eto'o, David Silva & a top left-back, and Hyypia's coming back as a coach. But I doubt that.

This season has been a tough one, on the pitch and most days when I walk into my Manchester office. I said at the start of 2008/09 that it was our last chance for a few years to win the title before Man City's money took over, and unfortunately I'm being proven right. We punched above our weight last year with 7 wins and a draw being gained in the last 10 minutes of games, through the sheer blood, guts and hunger of the players involved - a fantastic effort but not a scenario you want to find yourself in. This season has seen nothing of the sort.

As a tear-stained Liverpool supporter, and a football fan as a whole I have decided that the most important thing in the game is hope. Hope that you could win the Cup Final, hope that the flamboyant winger everyone wants is coming to your club, and hope that next season you can go one better. I lost that hope at the end of Houllier's generally successful reign and believed he had to go, and yes I've reached that point again under Benitez.

But Liverpool face a far bigger challenge and must paint a far bigger new picture than the change of a face in the dugout. I need hope that - instead of being top of the second tier in the Premier League - we can make a permanent step into the Top Four. I need hope that we can pay the wages to rival Chelsea and Man Utd, have a stadium better than Arsenal's and be the first choice for upcoming players. I need hope that John Barnes and Steve McManaman of yesteryear will rejoin the club and the Board will offer me the job as manager.

Okay so some things are less likely than others.

The current picture doesn't seem too bad - apparently we are more profitable than we ever have been. We have certainly signed more top price (15m+) players than ever before, and the nucleus of our team is more than capable of winning things. We are also exploiting commercial opportunities in the way that used to make us sick.

Only fools try and rush the future. But right now I need to hear that we are moving forward with the stadium and the squad. I need to hear Jamie Carragher telling me that he has hope for the next few years.