Hi all,
As the title states, I'm a Liverpool fan.
And as a 'proper' Liverpool fan, I love Rafa.
If I could, I'd have his children.
The man is the epitome of class. The things he (and his family) have done for Liverpool and Merseyside has been phenomenal, though rarely acknowledged in the media (because they only like people such as 'Onest 'Arry and Fat Sam). I'm not sure how much you care about Hillsborough, but it means a HUGE deal to us. As it does to Rafa and family, who made such an effort to help out the families during the campaign (including donating £96k to the Hillsborough campaign when he was sacked!). This is another good example of how we feel about him:
On a football level, if/when(!!) he gets it right, you will see some breathtaking stuff. He's a pragmatist. He will do what he can do with what he has. Build what he can with the money he has. upgrade as he goes along. But he always tries to put round pegs in round holes, then upgrade the pegs.
Whilst at Liverpool, people accused him of being 'power hungry' and wanting too much control.
All he ever wanted was the various depts to work as well as they should have (hence the appointment of Segura and Borrell from Barca as our youth team manager/coaches).
We were on such an upward trajectory with Rafa in charge, then we got the wrong owners.
If you think Ashley is bad, I'm pretty sure he wasn't trying to take loans out against the value of the players! Rafa was the one fighting in our (the fans) corner, but media and the hierarchy have more power and made him out to be the bad guy, leaving us in the relegation zone, on the verge of administration and Hodge in charge.
Rafa tried to fight it, and eventually lost.
Don't let that happen at Newcastle.
I truly believe that if Rafa was our manager when our (latest) takeover happened, we would have won the league.
Give him time. You have a Champs League, Europa League, La Liga, FA Cup, etc winning manager in your hands. DON'T LET HIM GO!!!
Always liked Newcastle. Even more so with Rafa.
YNWA