'RAFA' LEAVES ANFIELD-LET'S GET BACK TO TRADITIONAL VALUES.

Speaking as a Liverpool fan for the last  45 years along with Scarborough Athletic, I personally am sad to see Rafa Benitez leave Anfield, but after the clubs poor  season and failure to reach the Champions league next season plus the  embarassment of finishing out of the top 4  in the Premier league, I suppose it isn't really such a shock that Rafa had to go, there really is not much room in football for the 'nice guy' anymore. The fans will miss him, most of them at least and he should be remembered for the thrilling Champions league win in Istanbul, coming back from 3-0 down to lift the trophy, that night will forever be Liverpool folklore, he has made some bad signings, but he is not the only manager to do that, and considering the way he has had to work alongside the American clown owners and all the crap he has had to put up with from them I think he has done a good job in his time at Anfield, and  I wish him well for the future and I know that he will get a fantastic Anfield welcome if he ever returns there as an opposition manager, he always put his players first, he loved the fans, he never let himself be intimidated and said things how they were, especially where Man Utd and Ferguson were concerned.

Who would I like to see replace him at Anfield ? my ideals are just not possible with football the way it is now, I was lucky enough to follow the team while the great Bill Shankly was in charge and then Bob Paisley, the boot room is legendary and in spite of a certain Scot by the name of  Souness trying to destroy it and everything it stood for the legacy of the bootroom will never be forgotten,it will remain in football fans hearts forever, the likes of Shanks, Paisley, Joe Fagan, Ronnie Moran, Roy Evans, Rueben Bennett, these fantastic people made Liverpool into the most feared team for decades and Anfield was feared by all visiting players, continuity within the club at all levels, hard work and loyalty. I would like to see people like Kenny Dalgeish, Phil Thompson, Sammy Lee and Steve Heighway all having roles at the club, and other ex players like Ian Rush and John Aldridge, these are people who LIVERPOOL FOOTBALL CLUB means something to, it would be the ideal opportunity for the club to get rid of the continental methods and bring back some of the true values to the game, but the names being banded about now are the usual high profile tossers who do not deserve to have any control at this great club, they include Chilean Manuel Pellegrini, Guus Hiddink, Louis Van Gaol, Slaven Bilic and that great successful manager Mark Hughes !!!, but the biggest threat to the club is the thought that Sven is interested, apparently he is a life long fan of Liverpool, he used to watch them on tv with his dad back home in Sweden (Sven's words) "We watched them quite regularly, we would cheer them on, they have always been my team and nothing has changed", Frightening thought that he could become manager.

Realistically the way the Premier league and top class football in general is at this time there is only one manager to put Liverpool back at the top of the pile but he has just gone to Real Madrid, he would have been fantastic as a Liverpool manager.he did not do himself any favours taunting the Liverpool fans at Anfield while Chelsea manager but he is the only one of the so called 'elite' list that I would like to see in charge of my team.
Ideally I  would love to see the names I mentioned earlier at the club with maybe Kenny as manager once more, but I know how unrealistic the thought is, we will no doubt end up with another big name foreign manager, who will bring in his own backroom staff and players at an astronomical cost to the club who incidentally are around £350 million in debt at this time.

I wonder what the great man 'Shanks' would make of it all.

The game was much better back in the mid 60's through to the late 70's, full of characters and emotion, it is just full of merceneries and money now.