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.

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.