The Liverpool board are meeting this evening and leaking information to the press about a severance package for Rafa Benitez.
Rafa himself is on holiday.
The club are keen to offer Rafa £3M for him to mutually agree to the termination of his contract. Under the terms of his remaining deal Benitez is entitled to the rest of his contract – a total of £16M.
It seems that the Liverpool board don’t even have the spine, or financial muscle, to sack the manager.
The significance of the £3M offer amuses us greatly. It is approximately the amount in bank interest Liverpool have wasted since only the end of the season. In total the owners have spent £110M of Liverpool FC’s money on bank interest in just over three years.
In our recent poll over 75% of Liverpool supporters backed Rafa Benitez.
We now find ourselves in the ridiculous situation whereby
Tom Hicks and George Gillett (who both want to sell the club) and Martin Broughton, the club’s chairman and an ardent Chelsea supporter are now deciding the future manager of the football club. Whatever happens, there is no transfer fund for this summer (the third successive year we have not spent in the transfer market), and we expect departures of several big names from Anfield – with both Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres set to leave.
One final thing – we find it utterly reprehensible that senior members of Liverpool’s hierachy are continuing to assasinate Rafa Benitez’s character in the press. It not only isn’t the Liverpool way, but it shows how spineless the current ‘custodians’ of the club have become.
It will be up to people to make their own judgements about what they can do. But in my respect, I personally will not be attending any further Liverpool FC games until the owners have relinquished their horrific and devastating ownership of the club.
i ask you all why we should pay out supporting are team, why the players should motivate themselves, why the staff behined the closed doors at the club, why the club works at all, when we have two people, just people who are just hell bend on making money even at everyones cost. that for me is it in a nutshell, and untill we do drastic things this is going to continue,,, now i say a full stay away from products, games, new kit, etc… they news will kill them of that before anything else…
if you stop reading the fucking media and start understanding most of the facts are so far form real world,, as was rafa going; he was fucking pushed and we all know that,, and as for rafa being to cold, he phone gerrard and spent 30 mins in a call!
Because fighting your corner is the most important thing in situations like this ! The players and staff should be motivated first and foremost by respect and love of the club, at the very least be PROFESSIONAL knowing that they are supposed to be doing their job.
Abandoning the club just to spite two fools however incompetent and negligent would only destroy Liverpool Fc and the only recompense we would get is the bank would demand payment of the loan from Hicks and Gillette ! Would you really destroy the club just to see that ?
Protesting, Demonstrating, Debating, ‘Certain’ boycotts and most importantly sticking with the club we all love are the way forward , NOT cutting of our nose to spite our face !
Im not a Rafa hater and i DONT want him to go but in my opinion he missed Paco an awful lot and that aided the yanks getting under his skin. I know the Americans are the main problem and have been since they came in making Rafas job almost impossible but i am just being objective in my view that Rafa is not entirely blameless. Can you see my point Tom ?
Hyypia and Crouch wanted more games which is fair enough don’t you think ? Do you remember Crouch scoring a hattrick one game and then being dropped cuss I do ! And Hyypia is much more quality than Skirtle who is a poor mans Hyyppia in my view.
I am sure that something could have been done which would make him back up to Carra and with Aggers injury list it wouldn’t been that much of a leap to say he would have got more games ( How we needed his hight last season eh)
Fare point i shouldn’t have said No Improvement but my point is that players have gone that could have done a better job than some who have replaced them and you cannot argue that allot of former players state that Rafa lacked a Dialogue with them ! Can they ALL be wrong ?!!!
i have just called standard chartered and got to speak to the vip manager, i was on the phone for 35 minutes waiting for them to take my call, and i ask them what they think about a buisness that wants the money pumped in by everything and everyone else but the two” owners”, he did not know what to say…..
i then asked him if he felt the club was right to have owners that are seeking shirt deals and other investment but with out putting it into playing staff, he then said ” we are reviewing what is happening,,, but i said what do you mean,,, he said that the club has left them witha lot of qestions that now need to be put to senior staff at lfc.
as far as i was told it sounds like to me that the new shirt deal is about nose dive!
Whaat ? They’ve signed a contract and in business terms they are bound by said contract. The fact that You say ” we are reviewing what is happening. The club has left them witha lot of qestions that now need to be put to senior staff at lfc” dose not in any way mean that the sponsorship deal is about to’Nose Dive’ because even if they were about to pull the plug they would have to pay a substantial fee in breaking that contract.
Please stop ‘Fear Mongering’ as I think we’ve all had one hell of a day already.
God, I really can’t believe the amount of support that Rafa is getting! Seriously, even on a modest budget (which is more than Man Utd and Arsenal’s,), how much closer are we to winning the Premier League?! He has proven himself to be a skilled political maneuverer, not a football manager. Both our major trophy wins under Benitez have come via penalties in games where we were totally outplayed. The reason he was so successful in Europe was because of the Anfield crowd pushing the players that little bit more, not because they were responding to the manager or his tactics. Stability? Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres give us that. If this move is to make them stay, as is being reported in some quarters, then it is the right thing to do.
Another short memory. Didn’t we beat Barcelona, Real and Inter in their own back yards? That’s right, Rafa’s success in Europe is all about the Anfield crowd. The same Anfield crowd that Houllier and Evans had. Funny how they didn’t do as well in Europe.
Anyone celebrating Rafa’s potential departure needs to wonder what will happen to the structure of Liverpool when he leaves.
Our youth teams have been overhauled in the last season and have been the only beacon of light under the dark cloud of our current owners current disastrous handling of this great club.
If Rafa leaves then so will his backroom staff. The very men that have been working hard to secure us the best young talent and setting up with some fantastic young prospects will leave and all the progress will unravel as quickly as it was made.
Only when the real problems at this club are dealt with will this club once again be great.
To summarise:
Unless our owners are bought out our club will limp from one crisis to the next
Anyone that is happy about this news is a total disgrace. Rafa has had the hardest job of any Liverpool manager becuase he’s had one arm tied behind his back financially and he’s had to work under the biggest bunch of slime the club has ever known. if so called fans can’t see that then they should go and support a club that doesn’t care about its history and traditions.
Despite all that he’s made us a competitive force in Europe and delivered some trophies and memorable nights. We even almost won the league. shame on you.
red rob,,,, at last someone is getting it ,,, well said mate,,, well said indeed,,
does anyone really think that we are going to get a top manager while the club is being run into the ground! does anyone really think that gerrard torres and javier will stay evevn if rafa stays or goes! thats very easy to suggest this while everyone and anything blames rafa!!!! its time we do a huge riot at the ground to the effect of putting this all over the word and show this countries media and system that h&g are not welcome at liverpool,, LFC IS IN SUCH A BAD STATE,, I JUST HAVE A HEART ATTACK AT WHATS GOING ON,,,,
The Yanks are spinning this, they are con artists, they are conning the fans who do not understand the depths they will stoop to make a quick buck. There is no evidence what so ever to support any of this spin from the players and in the last two seasons Rafa has made a profit for the club through sales, read the finances.
Rafa is the only man respecting the Liverpool way, they have continually stabbed him in the back and destroyed his credibility with their mates in the Sun, F365 and Sky.
True fans know not to trust any of those media outlets.
Rafa needs to stay get Hicks, Gillett, Purslow and Broughton out of the club.
The yanks never gave rafa a proper shot. Rafa is the best thing to happen to this club in the past 10 years and now he’s being forced out!
IRWT
IN RAFA I TRUST!
Like all genuine Reds, apart from S*n rent-a-supporters, I back Benitez who acted with honesty, integrity and decency in line with the highest traditions of the club.
I want Hicks, Gillett, Purslow and Broughton out now.
I’ll support merchandise and match boycotts to do it.
Every Red should join Spirit of Shankly and take positive action to stop our club from being destroyed now.
just because i dont support rafa does not mean i am not a genuine fan
here is the choice, WHICH WOULD YOU RATHER HAVE, RAFA ON THE SIDLINES OR STEVIE G, TORRES MASCH AND BENNY ON THE PITCH, JUST TO NAME A FEW ?
Whoever the sad misguided idiots are that say he needs to go need to get a grip, he’s one of the best managers since Dalglish
I.R.W.T
Y.N.W.A
They are destroying us, I’m sick to the stomach about what is going on here. The Americans have decimated our beloved club, now they are trying to oust the best manager we have had in a very long time. I’m lost for words, so angry and very very sad.
IRWT
YNWA
The disgusting pair of idiots are getting rid of the one thing holding the club together. Anyone who wants Rafa out at this moment in time need to look deeper. This is no longer just about our league position. Rafa is the only man preventing the owners from selling the players, which they need to do to make the club look more financially stable to any potential buyers.
We are in deep, deep trouble if Rafa leaves.
GET OUT FUCKING PAIR OF CON MEN OWNERS WHO ARE PUTTING THIS CLUB INTO ADMINISTRATION…..
This makes me sick to my stomach…………Hicks and Gillete are destroying an instituion, while they hang Rafa out to dry………This has to end before their is a riot.
Americans have no business in this sport. Rafa has my support, his track record speaks for itself…….He has brought the club forward while constantly being undermined from the rubbish board…… Who will replace him if their is no money to even buy players!?!?!?!?………… The club I love is seeing some very dark days, please let there be a quick transition of ownership and someone please give a few swift upp-cuts to those yankee wankers…..
LFC YNWA
I still cannot quite get over Rafa’s comments that he needed to buy “four or five” new world class players. What has he been doing?! This is essentially half a team and regardless of how much money he has had to spend over the past two summers, he had his chance to take the club to the top of the Premier League over five years and didn’t succeed. I agree that finding a new manager will be difficult, but the body language of our top players towards the end of last season showed that they were not willing to play for Benitez so a change is definitely needed. As for who would be silly / arrogant enough to think they can take the club forward whilst under the Americans, I have absolutely no idea!
I cannot understand where this 75% of liverpool fan want Rafa to stay. There must be only a few real Liverpool fans who want rafa to stay and they are blinded by 2005. They are the fans who have to go on google maps to find Anfield. We need a new board, new manager and to keep Gerrard and Torres. we need the new manager who can clear out all the S**t that Rafa spent £240 million on who should have never pulled on a Liverpool top. Liverpool fans need to face fact and it is now time to get rid of Rafa and get someone new.
I think you are the one that is blinded!
You complain about fans from ‘wales & down south’, did you tell the likes of Rush to f*** off when he signed for Liverpool being welsh n’all? How can a debate about our Manager (whether he is to stay or not) involve a comment about out of towners?
You try and tell me no fan in Liverpool wants Rafa out? no, because it is not possible, so go and wash your mouth out with soap mate!
Back to the article..OUR club is in a mess beyond repair until our owners sell up. Rafa appears to have lost the dressing room and changes need to be made. My worry with Rafa is, that if Torres and Gerrard are to leave (God forbid) will he spend that money wisely? his past transfers do not leave much hope bar a few names
Sorry i like RAFA but there is something broken in his man management if so many ex/current players are saying he lacks the ability to open a dialogue with them (something i think that maybe paco was for) You canny ignore the fact that something is amiss in this bloke even if you love him as much as our fans do.
Im trying to be objective here and the travesty of our current owners is not lost on me, nor their effect on spending power, lost promises and blatant disregard for what Liverpool stand for. However no one can stand to my face and say that Rafa is blameless for any of this ‘cum on’. He’s made allot of gaffs in his tenure and he has to take his share of the blame for this.
The owners should be the first to go not Rafa. Rafa has his faults, he’s bought great players and poor ones, creates great strategies and then follows them up a game later with baffling starting 11s and player positions. What scares me the most about Rafa leaving is who replaces him and who is appointing the new manager – the owners and their “board” at a guess. Should Rafa go? Probably yes, but another season wouldn’t hurt.
There’s been so many rumours about dressing room bust ups between Gerrard and Rafa, even Torres and Rafa…then denials of both. Gerrard and Torres are set to leave also but perhaps they wanted to leave because thy didn’t want to work for Rafa anymore?
The point is none of us know what’s gone on and probably never will.
Am a season ticket holder and I will be one next season, I hated listening to all the spirit of the kop rants, not because I didn’t agree with them , but because it hurt the heart of me to know what these b,,,,,s was doing to our heretige , it was obvious and everytime I heard them chants I would think stop it they can ruin us, well guess what wether it was because of us or not , they have ruined us, I wish I sang along with them , they haven’t only took away all this they have took away our amazing stadium that we will nerver ever see now, That would in itself made us amoungst the greatest , not that we wern’t already, but it would have been a hystoric moment for the city never mind the club. Tonight I feel like crying .
Rafa is interesting in Rafa. He is performing badly, hoping to get the sack, a $15M payout, and then move to another big club. Happens in Corporations all the time.
Good Ridance.
As for comments by mapc =huddersfield , wasn’t it the Houllier team that won the European cup? Get yer facts straight lad.
Since Rafa inherited a team that won the EC, he has sold, bought, and made changes that have driven us down year after year, season after season.
Get rid of his sorry butt.
You people haven’t got a clue! He had one bad season, He nearly won the league last season, he won the Champions league & the FA cup, bought Torres, Mascherano, Alonso and Reina, It only started going down hill once the americans started breaking promises and going behind rafas back, if anyone is to blame its the owners and there the first people who need to be out the door along with the awful fans who know nothing who come from the likes of Wales & down south f***off!!!.
We shouldn’t be worrying about getting rid of Rafa, we should be worrying about getting rid of Hicks and Gillet. Rafa’s not a bad manager, we just had a bad season. We’ve got far with Rafa and getting rid of him shouldn’t be an option. The finacial issue won’t get sorted if there’s a pitiful amount of money to spend on Transfers. I’ve heard Rafa is interested in signing Santa Cruz, which I think is a great idea. The better players we have the more chance we have of doing better in competitions and earning a bit of money to get rid of the mess the yanks have left.
When all is said and done I think Rafa lost the plot when we were dumped out of the champions league. Things started badly during pre-season and replacing Alonso with an injured Aquilina was an error of monumental proportions and was the decision to buy and then sell Keane. Too many mistakes and too much money wasted.
Also poor managerial decisions lost Liverpool key games and Rafa has not been able to give young talents like Jay Spearing a chance.
I too believe that most fans want to see a fresh start with a different approach where the focus is entirely on the team.
There is no way we wil get anyone with his pedigree now down hill all the way, our top players will be sold to line the pockets of them Yanks witch mean no more players , we will be playing championship football in 2011/2012 season ,
Goodbye raffa good luck you did your best for those ungreatull b……s xxx
everybody spends badly rafa has been playing catch in the transfer market the team he got from houllier was a pub team on silly wages players we spent money on were sold for peanuts just to get them of the wage bill 20 million for diof and dioa we got back what 5 mill every time he spent 20 chelsea spend 100 million man u same then americans come in now in debt i hope to god this story isnt true as i can see torres ,gerrard , masch, and the rest getting sold and the americans running off with the loot rafa knows the squad needs sorting and all he is asking for is some descent transfer money all the top managers need money fergie mouriniho mancini and chelsea one
How can you say the team he got from houllier was a pub team. Benitez won the champions league with houlliers team. And as for transfer money he has spent over 220 million on donkeys. Good riddance Rafa.
Houllier didn’t win the Champions League with Houllier’s team though did he?
The facts are clear.
Rafa Benitez has the second best managerial record of any Liverpool manager after Kenny Dalglish.
You cannot deny that RAFA has made allot of questionable decisions in his time and the amount of players stating that he wont/would’nt even talk to them is alarmingly high!
He may have a really good record on paper and statistically but the fact is that we cannot compete partly because he’s ether ignored or forced players into a point where they feel that there is no way out but to leave. We’ve lost good players in the likes of Alonso, Arbeloa, Hyppia, Crouch, Bellamy etc and replaced them with worse and what is worse is we really didn’t need to.
(regardless of what you say those players didn’t leave because they no longer wanted to play for Liverpool)
I like Rafa but he did loose it under the pressure and responded poorly.
“lost good players in the likes of Alonso, Arbeloa, Hyppia, Crouch, Bellamy etc and replaced them with worse and what is worse is we really didn’t need to.
(regardless of what you say those players didn’t leave because they no longer wanted to play for Liverpool)”
Alonse did not put in a transfer request to go back to his beloved Spain, no?
Arbeloa left BECAUSE HE WANTED TO GO BACK TO SPAIN!
Crouch wanted to play more games, but should he have been higher in the picking order than Torres?
Hyyppia wanted to play more games, but should he be higher in the picking list than Skrtel, Agger and Carrager?
Bellamy was sold fo fund the purchase of Torres. No improvement you say?
Tom, Alonso was forced to leave through the constant touting of GARATH BARRY again and again and so felt totally unwanted ( wouldn’t you ?) Arbeloa probably left because he wanted to and thought he was going to a bigger club but could the club have stopped that ?
Im sorry but BELLAMY FOR TORRES ow ye how much did we get for Bellamy ? And how much was Torres ? I don’t think your numbers go mate.
To see my response to the rest of your comments see the last two on this page as i think that covers it and just to correct myself and YOU i never said ‘No Improvement’ la so iv taken the words out of me mouth for you .
Rafa needs to go. As Norman has stated he’s not spent any of our money wisely at all barring a few players. But first and foremost the owners really need to go. They’re just making a mockery of our history and prestige as a top english club
I can see who the 75% are. All LFC fans I speak to without question know he needs to go.
He has spent badly (apart from Reine, macherano, Torres)
The sooner he goes the better