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Rafa Benitez


Anorthernsoul
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  • 1 month later...

Fucking hell, had no idea Mourinho was so bitter about him. Will be interesting to see how that plays out next season, but it looks to me as though Mourinho is slipping these days.

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I'm sure RTGs lurkers will love this but I'd genuinely rather have Rafa than Jose as manager. Mourinho disappeared up his own arse years ago and seems incapable of managing a dressing room anymore

 

Agreed, not convinced by Mourinho at all these days. Busted flush.

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Barney Ronay penned an interesting piece on Mourinho last year as the Chelsea disaster unfolded. The gist was that most managers have a ten year life cycle for (lots of) success. Think Capello, van Gaal, Lippi, Sacchi, Shankly, Sven, Wenger? etc.

 

Ferguson and Trapattoni being obvious exceptions (though the latter began management aged 35 with Milan).

 

Here's the article. On the whole the one thing I thought it lacked was to get to grips with why the 10 year cycle might be a thing generally. (Though it does try to look at Mourinho's problems at the time.)

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I'm sure RTGs lurkers will love this but I'd genuinely rather have Rafa than Jose as manager. Mourinho disappeared up his own arse years ago and seems incapable of managing a dressing room anymore

He has also basically managed the strongest (or at least top 2/3) club in whatever division he has been in his whole career, I'd say their Porto/Valencia stints were similar in that they inherited extremely talented young squads and they both did very well bringing them on but I don't think Mourinho has ever had a job like Rafa's Liverpool one. 

 

Mourinho has always had a very clear cycle, comes in changes the culture, gets them winning and brings in players at the top of their game (Porto aside), has a very successful stint and then proceeds to fall out with everyone before leaving. I don't think a club like us are really set up for that successful stint, of course I think he'd do a job here whatever we think of him he's a talented manager but I just think Rafa is a better fit. I also much prefer Benitez as a bloke, I just feel wherever Mourinho is it's about him but Benitez is really appreciative of the fans and the club.

 

I've no idea why Mourinho is struggling at Man Utd but whatever happens I hope it's shit for Man Utd, he has such an arrogance to him and it's one of those things where when everyone is on your side it's a real asset but the minute there's a wavering of support it works against the team sort of like Hazard's massive downturn in form last season.

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Good read that article. Like has been said above Mourinho is the type of guy you'd look for to manage a star studded squad, try and get the most out of them. Even if its not been going well for him recently. When you've got a more long term 'project' like us or Liverpool, people like Benetiz or Klopp might be a better fit. It also goes to show how important club culture and finding the 'right fit' is whether its players or managers. I think from Rafa's time at Inter and Real you can tell he's not someone who can immediately come in and take over a dressing room full of egos. Perhaps a little less surprising then that he decided to stay with us with the opportunity of building his own squad based on his footballing philosophy.

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Just about getting the right man in at the right time. Dont think he would have had the same success at Inter even if he'd taken over when Mourinho did.

 

Btw didnt Maradona recently have a dig at us for appointing Rafa after his failure at Real :lol:

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Btw didnt Maradona recently have a dig at us for appointing Rafa after his failure at Real :lol:

Was he saying we should have stuck with McClaren or gone for Nigel Pearson?

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Was he saying we should have stuck with McClaren or gone for Nigel Pearson?

That was schmeichel.

 

Maradona just doesn't seem to understand that we hired him after he didn't do well at Madrid.

 

Maradona who seems to think he has a divine right to everything despite being a woman beating coke fiend who has never successfully managed a team.

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