2021/22 Rafael Benitez

[Papa Shango]

I'm not telling lies. He got nearly 40 mil for Alonso which at the time was top dollar, especially for a Liverpool side which was being screwed over by their owners. Yeah Aquilani was a massive mistake

If he wanted Barry to play alongside Alonso and to fill his English quota then why did he then sign Aquilani (not English) instead whilst also losing Alonso?

Alonso wanted out as soon as Barry was mentioned as his replacement. The whole scenario was really poor man management. You don't upset your current player whilst failing to land his replacement.

Hopefully he has learned from it, it was ages ago after all.

 

[Daveysgingerlovechild]

….who will go first, Benitez or Boris Johnson?

Job swap maybe?

 

[FrenchDarrenBent]

If he wanted Barry to play alongside Alonso and to fill his English quota then why did he then sign Aquilani (not English) instead whilst also losing Alonso?

Alonso wanted out as soon as Barry was mentioned as his replacement. The whole scenario was really poor man management. You don't upset your current player whilst failing to land his replacement.

Hopefully he has learned from it, it was ages ago after all.

I read he ignored Alonso's request to have a matchday off when his wife was about to give birth.

 

[Papa Shango]

Did he, or did he not:
1. Get relegated
2. Sold players for more than he bought
3. Got them safely to 10th & 12th in his two premier league seasons.

The man knows transfers.

Don't worry, if his record doesn't improve, he'll get sacked. The lack of concentration, creativity & desire was/is (pre-arsenal) very worrying. I fully agree on the fact that this run that he's on is disastrous & has to improve dramatically.

This is highly debatable.

Loves the scattergun approach, a club like ours cant really do that, not yet at least. We can not afford to soak up the ones who don't work (which are many in Benitez's career).

 

[davek]

With bells on?

You mean embellish his story further so that he hasnt been sacked from multiple jobs, hasn't fought and lost with virtually every board he has ever had, hasn't got one of the most appalling transfer records in history...............and so on?

This with bells on because it's a call to back the manager and for the club to unify around the team.

How is it strange that I'd want that?

 

[tsubaki]

This is highly debatable.

Loves the scattergun approach, a club like ours cant really do that, not yet at least. We can not afford to soak up the ones who don't work (which are many in Benitez's career).

Indeed.

TBF it is also worth pointing out how few of Benitez’s earlier deals were like the Gray one, as in a young player who’d lost his way a bit but still could be brought round with effort and faith.

Moyes did that repeatedly when he was here (Arteta and Pienaar being the best examples of it working, but also Drenthe and VDM when it didn’t) and also looked for players who’d been rejected but fought to get back via other clubs (Baines and Jagielka for example) but I am not sure Benitez ever did either.

 

[Toffeelover]

….who will go first, Benitez or Boris Johnson?

Keep politics out of it.

 

[Toffeelover]

Reported that DBB is also on the way out. Pity we can't get rid of BK, he's like a cat with 9 lives.

 

[Theoneandonly]

If he wanted Barry to play alongside Alonso and to fill his English quota then why did he then sign Aquilani (not English) instead whilst also losing Alonso?

Alonso wanted out as soon as Barry was mentioned as his replacement. The whole scenario was really poor man management. You don't upset your current player whilst failing to land his replacement.

Hopefully he has learned from it, it was ages ago after all.

“The Barry story is something that still people don’t understand.

Barry had been playing for years at his maximum level and, at this time, he could play in three positions – midfielder, winger and left-back.

“We had [Javier] Mascherano, Lucas Leiva and [Steven] Gerrard with experience, and selling Alonso was a way to make some money and balance the team.

Barry wasn’t to replace Alonso, he was to give us something different that we didn’t have at this time.”

"With the rules that were coming in we knew we would need more English players so we were trying to be prepared for that. It became more complicated, but I think it was the right thing to try because Alonso was not playing at the same level as before."

 

[LocalNative]

“The Barry story is something that still people don’t understand.

Barry had been playing for years at his maximum level and, at this time, he could play in three positions – midfielder, winger and left-back.

“We had [Javier] Mascherano, Lucas Leiva and [Steven] Gerrard with experience, and selling Alonso was a way to make some money and balance the team.

Barry wasn’t to replace Alonso, he was to give us something different that we didn’t have at this time.”

"With the rules that were coming in we knew we would need more English players so we were trying to be prepared for that. It became more complicated, but I think it was the right thing to try because Alonso was not playing at the same level as before."

Poor judgment from Benitez then, selling Alonso over Mascherano and Lucas!?

 

[Papa Shango]

“The Barry story is something that still people don’t understand.

Barry had been playing for years at his maximum level and, at this time, he could play in three positions – midfielder, winger and left-back.

“We had [Javier] Mascherano, Lucas Leiva and [Steven] Gerrard with experience, and selling Alonso was a way to make some money and balance the team.

Barry wasn’t to replace Alonso, he was to give us something different that we didn’t have at this time.”

"With the rules that were coming in we knew we would need more English players so we were trying to be prepared for that. It became more complicated, but I think it was the right thing to try because Alonso was not playing at the same level as before."

But you just said Barry was brought in to play alongside Alonso but have now said that Alonso was being sold anyway to make some money to balance the team? Which makes perfect sense as he was "not playing at the same level as before"

Before moving to Real Madrid and Bayern of course where he was still quality.

It's understandable for Alonso's head to drop a bit after being told they are getting rid of him and openly courting his replacement at the same time.

I don't know if it was Benitez, the club or whatever but the whole thing was a massive misstep by them and undid a lot of the progress they were making.

 

[Papa Shango]

Keep politics out of it.

I'm taking that as Benitez then.

 

[Toffeelover]

This with bells on because it's a call to back the manager and for the club to unify around the team.

How is it strange that I'd want that?

Not at all;.

With all the recnt ructions and the words coming from Benitez it looks to me that he is frimly getting his feet under the table and planning a very long stay. I think in all his previous appointments he has never experienced the control he now has at Everton.

 

[Papa Shango]

Indeed.

TBF it is also worth pointing out how few of Benitez’s earlier deals were like the Gray one, as in a young player who’d lost his way a bit but still could be brought round with effort and faith.

Moyes did that repeatedly when he was here (Arteta and Pienaar being the best examples of it working, but also Drenthe and VDM when it didn’t) and also looked for players who’d been rejected but fought to get back via other clubs (Baines and Jagielka for example) but I am not sure Benitez ever did either.

Yeah redemption signings are always good stories when they work out.

There is a chance he did it at Valencia, I don't really know much about that timeframe other than he did a really good job there to be fair.

People often point to his signings of Koulibaly, Mertens and Jorginho at Napoli. All quality signings of course but none of them really flourished until Sarri took over. That's not to say they wouldn't have either I suppose.

 

[Kev50]

This is highly debatable.

Loves the scattergun approach, a club like ours cant really do that, not yet at least. We can not afford to soak up the ones who don't work (which are many in Benitez's career).

that alll depends on how well he does with the ones that work. How much is Gray worth now, £40m? That's the price that would be quoted if someone came in for him. No way would we be selling for the sum we paid Arsenal for Iwobi