Homepage Article Rafael Benitez Appointed Everton Manager

[Tubey]

No it isn’t. Mid-table is par for the course for them. Their fans are giving Steve Bruce a dog’s life for finishing mid table.

Now it is, post-Benitez. While he was there, they'd just gone down to the Championship, he brought them back up and stabilised them. He's beloved in Tyneside for the job he did.

 

[MikeH72]

Now it is, post-Benitez. While he was there, they'd just gone down to the Championship, he brought them back up and stabilised them. He's beloved in Tyneside for the job he did.

They actually hadn’t “just gone down”. They were finishing anywhere from 5th - 15th under Alan Pardew previous to appointing Benitez. Mid table is par for the course for Newcastle.

He’s beloved because their fans are besotted with Liverpool and he’s a Liverpool legend. He was untouchable from the day he walked in there, he was always getting a free pass regardless. If he’d left after they went down they’d still love him and would’ve just blamed Ashley.

 

[roy vernon]

If you look at the previous 400+ pages, it is obvious what an absolutely terrible appointment this has been. While it is true, he may well surprise a lot of people and be successful, he may well, also, surprise the rest of the fan base and be an absolute disaster.

It really doesn’t matter on which side of the fence you sit, this is an appallingly ill judged appointment, it is literally turning blue against blue. @Groucho says name another manager we could have got, and, to some extent, he has a point. The salient point is that Benitez is no longer a very good manager and has not been for several years, so would Nuno or Potter or any of the other candidates done a worse job than him? I don’t believe so, but, had we have appointed one of the other candidates, we would not have 430 pages of blues fuming at the appointment and other blues fuming at the fumers? I don’t think so.

I for one was, and still am, totally against this appointment. For football reasons, I think he is well past his sell by date and has taken the job knowing full well that if he succeeds that is a bonus and if he fails he will get a fine payoff for his troubles. Also I am against his appointment on the grounds that, successful or not it is so divisive. That said, I do not call the people who want Benitez members of a cult and I would like to be awarded the same courtesy.

 

[Simon Buttle]

It's really simple mate.

There wasn't any choice that would have been met with big acceptance - to the point of them being given a prolonged honeymoon period.

When you accept that, you become more tolerable/understanding to not avoiding Benitez just because he wasn't popular.

There was no popular choice.

More fans voted against Nuno Santo than Benitez - that gives an indication.

You said Howe would have been accepted just fine.

No. Just no. I'd have fumed against him much more so than Benitez. Evertonian or not.

Yeah but this is the problem with not letting the DOF choose the manager, a good DOF will know all the options that are available around Europe not just guys who have PL experience which is always what we seem to look for. In recent years the best managers in the league have tended to be guys who have gone into clubs with no PL experience. There were other options out there in terms of a manager but we just did'nt even entertain them for whatever reason. Galtier would have been a great option (i know he seemed committed to Nice sadly) Diego Martinez the Grenada manager who got them to the later stages of the Europa with a squad of loans and free transfers playing attacking football, or Conceicao at Porto who has experience of working with squads full of misfits. There were other options we just chose not to look at them for whatever reason.

 

[Toast]

I don’t like Benitez.

I would have had Nuno.
My reason being he wanted all his own staff.

This would have resulted in us binning off all our hangers on who have been unsuccessful for multiple managers for years.

I realise this again, would have been divisive.
I now hope he bombs at Spurs, but the two jobs are very different, especially if Kane goes and he has to rebuild very quickly, but he’s got the agent to do that I guess.

 

[Barnfred 55]

I have been somewhat taken aback by the childlike insults aimed at him.

Maybe I'm getting soft or old or both, but that aspect of it has been a poor reflection on this place.

Of all the problems I saw when he was appointed, this obession with his weight was not one of them.

This is GOT. It isn't your normal football fan forum. It's a place for WUMs and pisstakers as much as it is for serious football chat. It isn't for everyone.

But see through the silly name calling and there is a genuine dislike of Benitez from a large portion of our fan base and it is deeply felt in many cases. It doesn't make them better Evertonians than those that are happy he's here, but nor does it make them worse. Just different.

 

[DanB90]

2. No he didn't, he came in March and did reasonably well with what he had. 19th, in freefall, nearly kept them up, just didn't get over the line. No suggestion many other managers could have done much better.

3. But he kept them up, which again given their squad was a good job.

4. It's Newcastle, mid-table is their Champions League.

5. Neither did any of the candidates listed. In many cases they'd done nothing at all to show why they should have been given the job.

So no, again, there's only one valid, definitive reason - the job in China.

All the things I listed actually happened though. You’ve just put a positive spin on them, which can be done with pretty much anything.

 

[GrandOldTeam]

Hi mate.

I don’t know. I’m not in the business of hiring football managers.

But labelling everyone a thick moron who has genuine reservations over our manager doesn’t sit right with me.

I’ll back him whilst he’s here and want him to do well.

What I was doing in my previous post was listing genuine football reasons why blues might be opposed to our manager, something the OP said couldn’t me done.

Its easy to find fault, less easy to find solutions.

I can write a massive list of why not to have Benitez.

My list for choices to come in as Everton manager would be blank.

 

[Tubey]

They actually hadn’t “just gone down”. They were finishing anywhere from 5th - 15th under Alan Pardew previous to appointing Benitez. Mid table is par for the course for Newcastle.

He’s beloved because their fans are besotted with Liverpool and he’s a Liverpool legend. He was untouchable from the day he walked in there, he was always getting a free pass regardless. If he’d left after they went down they’d still love him and would’ve just blamed Ashley.

They had Carver/McLaren after Pardew. Pardew left two years earlier.

 

[Dixie1sixty]

I see people still haven't accepted he's our manager.

Just get on with it ffs.

 

[MikeH72]

They had Carver/McLaren after Pardew. Pardew left two years earlier.

Pardew left in January 2015, 14 months before Benitez came in.

 

[Tubey]

Pardew left in January 2015, 14 months before Benitez came in.

Yep, so it wasn't "previous to appointing Benitez" was it - McClaren had them in freefall nailed on for relegation when he came in. Benitez's first full season was in the Championship.

 

[MikeH72]

Yep, so it wasn't "previous to appointing Benitez" was it - McClaren had them in freefall nailed on for relegation when he came in. Benitez's first full season was in the Championship.

Obviously McLaren was an absolute disaster of an appointment, which is exactly my point, they are a mid table club and being involved in a relegation battle was them underperforming. Benitez getting them promoted then finishing mid table twice was not over performing, it was returning to their norm.

 

[Tubey]

Obviously McLaren was an absolute disaster of an appointment, which is exactly my point, they are a mid table club and being involved in a relegation battle was them underperforming. Benitez getting them promoted then finishing mid table twice was not over performing, it was returning to their norm.

Any club coming from the Championship to the Premier League and attaining consistent mid-table with the budget he had is doing well. What they did years previously is irrelevant following a relegation, it's a reset of player calibre/expectations.

Criticising Benitez for his job at Newcastle is ridiculous. He did very well.

 

[Columbo2]

I just received a remnder from The Grand Old Team saying that I've not logged in for a while - so here I am and the first thread I look at is Everton "fans" slagging each other off, insulting fellow fans and generally being obnoxious, all because they have a different opinion about a subjective decision made by the Club.
I expect I'll get slagged off for having the tumerity to comment, but two fingers and f/you to those who throw insults and abuse.
Bye.