Rafalution in the Head

It was meant to be the holiday season. The busiest time for EPL clubs as about half a dozen games are squeezed  in between the few days before Christmas and the New Year. A time that can make or break clubs. And, managers.


Over in Melwood, Roy Hodgson must've breathed a sigh of relief when two games in this period were called-off due to the adverse weather. Seemingly, difficult games by current standards. One, a match that pitted Hodgson against his former employers with a Mark Hughes who is eager to convince the Fulham faithful that he is the man to replace Hodgson. The other, against formidable opponents, Blackpool. Yes, things have changed  a lot at Liverpool this season.

Unfortunately, the feeling of relief must have been abruptly cut short on hearing that Liverpool's former manager, was sacked from his job in Milan and subsequently decides to spend the holiday season in his Wirral home, just down the road from Melwood. No pressure there, eh?


Cue a flurry of activity on the many online Liverpool forums, Facebook and Twitter on the possible return of Rafa Benitez to the hot seat in Anfield. Immediately polls popped-up asking Liverpool supporters on whether they would take Benitez back. Not surprisingly, most if not all of the sites had at least, two thirds of people in support of Benitez's return.


What would be interesting to know is whether the two third majority reflects a genuine support for Benitez or is just some sort of no confidence vote for the current manager. I'd go with the former but then again, I've always been a fan of Benitez's work. But, to be fair, when all the underlying issues that exist at Anfield (player power, new footballing structure, media bias, etc.) are set aside, Benitez is still the only truly world class manager that is available and more importantly, passionately willing to take the Liverpool job.


The question now is, will it actually happen? And if so, will it be anytime soon?

Some Malaysian Football Fans

It was probably around this time last year when my other half's friend had a visit from her boyfriend/soon-to-be fiancee, all the way from Malaysia. Let's call him...Jimmy. As would be expected of most good Malaysian husbands, I was coerced volunteered to come along so that said friend's boyfriend, Jimmy wouldn't feel left out when surrounded by all the ladies.

At dinner, after all the pleasantries, knowing that I and another male guest were big Liverpool fans, Jimmy's girlfriend mentioned in passing that Jimmy too was a Liverpool fan. Two pairs of eyes were suddenly fixed on Jimmy as the girls left us guys alone to continue with our male-bonding.

That Rafa's an idiot.

Jimmy announced boldly, looking to get our attention. He certainly had mine. There was absolutely no doubt about that. The other male guest looked at me, hiding a wry smile in anticipation of a salvo of facts from me towards Jimmy about Liverpool's manager, at the time.

I looked across the room and there was my other half staring straight at me. Those lovely eyes I fell in love with might as well have been Superman's with red laser rays directed at me, boiling the grey matter in my head until it all burst out like Old Faithful out of the top of my skull. Yeah, I got the message: Don't.make.a.scene.

Hmmm...we've had a bad season...

I managed to mumble something out through clenched teeth. To me, it was unacceptable for one to claim himself to be a Liverpool fan but at the same time attack the club's manager in such a manner. Especially one who has proven himself on many occassions and was due a bad season at some stage. Criticise his tactics? Yes. Ridicule the manner in which he deals with the media? Probably. But, to call him names just because the team was going through a bad patch? No.

Then again, Jimmy wouldn't be the worst there is. Only a season before, Liverpool finished second in the league with a points tally that would've won the league in any other season. Unfortunately, like the saying goes, second is the first loser. So, it wasn't surprising for a knee-jerk, Sky/Star Sports-fed fan like Jimmy to expect nothing less than an all-conquering Liverpool side in the season to follow.

No, Jimmy certainly isn't the worst. One fan comes to mind. Back in my college days in Malaysia, there was this one so-called United fan that used to go around referring to Ryan Giggs as Brian Griggs, Ronaldo (the fat Brazilian one, not the one currently at Real) as Rolando, Mark Hughes as Mart Huge etc. This went on for some time until a couple of us finally confronted him on the matter. We soon discovered that he had based his entire football knowledge on a video game (Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer or something like that). Basically, as the games couldn't or plainly couldn't afford the naming rights for the various football players, the game's designers decided to substitute the real players' names with similar-sounding names. Normally, when setting-up these games, most fans would use the customise option to change the names to the real ones but for this one dude, the in-game names were the real ones and everybody else was wrong or had some form of dyslexia when it came to football players' names.

Or, you might want to consider another Malaysian-based fan who started supporting United (they all seem to claim to support United) because he was so into Beckham's haircut (the semi-long one with the middle parting). Huh? Give me glory-hunting Chelsea fans (post-Abramovich, of course) any day. At least their reasons have got something to do with the game.

Fortunately, for every fan out there who would swap his/her club's jersey at a drop of a league point, there are still a few out there who actually take the time to understand the beautiful game and apply at the very least, some degree of reserach and more importantly, common sense when supporting their respective clubs. If you're one of these people (you know who you are), keep it up...Malaysia needs you!

Saved By the Bale

It must've been over a decade since I last looked forward to a match at club level more than I would a Liverpool match. I've had my eye on this match ever since the fixtures for the Champions League group stages were confirmed: Internazionale v. Tottenham Hotspur.

The match sees Rafa Benitez somewhat reunited with Harry Redknapp and the English media for the first time since being forced out of Liverpool in the summer. OK, so why is it that I was so looking forward to this match?

The reason is simple really. I wanted Inter to win. Not only that though, I wanted to see Rafa Benitez and his Inter squad systematically disassemble Harry Redknapp's Spurs like the rookies to Europe that they are. Put Redknapp in his place and all that, while in the process, show the English media (well, most of them anyway) how wrong they were in their almost xenophobic treatment of foreign managers (Benitez in particular) and their blind support for English managers (Redknapp and media darling, Hodgson specifically).

So, was it worth the wait?

Oh, yes. Within 2 minutes, Inter were one up and by half-time it was game over. Even the faithful in the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza fell strangely silent, satisfied with the opposing team's comprehensive destruction on the night, seeing no need to cheer on their own team any further. A sign of mercy perhaps to the battered, floored and demoralised Londoners. This doesn't include Bale of course, who had other plans towards the tail end of the night.

And what of Redknapp? Well, he did what he does best. Twitch endlessly on the sidelines.

Gracias señor Benítez. Gracias.

The Right Man for the Job?

I came across this article by Dion Fanning and couldn't agree more with his words, especially these ones...

The destruction of England's most successful club is not Hodgson's fault. But he is not the man to create the illusion on the field that it's not happening.


Benitez's achievement in keeping Liverpool competitive while Hicks and Gillett destroyed the club for all but his final season is now looking even more remarkable as things enter a vital endgame.

A classic case of You Don't Know What You're Missing Until It's Gone, isn't it? The timing of the article was also quite appropriate when in the same week, the blame for Liverpool's current woes were placed solely on the head of Benitez.


On the other hand, it was strange to hear from a host of British managers like Alex Ferguson, Sam Allardyce and Steve Bruce who all insisted that Hodgson is the right man for the job. Maybe they should clarify a bit more what they all meant by right man. At this stage, their right man definition appears to be of Liverpool manager that doesn't bruise their collective egos. Great for them of course, but where does that leave Liverpool?


Admittedly, its a little unfair to criticise Hodgson at such an early stage of the season but Liverpool's worst start since the 1950's isn't actually reassuring for a manager who was supposed to steady the ship. Ah, maybe the said ship has a lot more leaks than initially expected, eh?

Well, here's one way you can help plug two of the bigger holes in that ship. I'm off to do my part and send my own email.

Rome wasn’t built in a day but...

...Pekan Trolak probably was. Have you been to Trolak? It’s a dead end, literally. Traffic can’t actually get through Trolak and one would have to do u-turn to get out of the town, an act that wouldn’t take too long since all there is the local Penghulu’s official residence, a post office that doubles as tyre shop (or something like that) and a barber, if I’m not mistaken. That’s it.

All this then conveniently brings me to Rome. OK, not really, but the official word from Liverpool Football Club is that Rome wasn’t built in a day and so, we should be patient with the current manager, that’s if, it was clear that he was trying to build Rome, not Pekan Trolak.

Eh? Hang on. Wasn’t he brought in to steady the ship and keep the team intact rather turn the club into another work-in-progress?

You see, I’m trying very hard to like Roy Hodgson’s regime at Anfield. Honestly, I am. After all, the Liverpool manager deserves all the support his predecessors received during their respective tenures at the club. The recent signing of Raul Meireles does certainly help as I was beginning to wonder, how in the world the Liverpool manager could think Christian Poulsen was a like-for-like replacement for the all-action Javier Mascherano.

Very much like when Rafa Benitez wanted to shore-up the defence by buying experience in the form of Sotirios Kyrgiakos, Hodgson was keen to do the same with the midfield hence, the acquisition of Poulsen. The two of them would be used in the Europa League, the Carling Cup, the FA Cup and probably against the League’s lesser teams when the manager opts to utilise the kids rather than Melwood’s finest. Makes complete sense.

But then, that’s where the similarity ends when it comes to these two managers’ transfer policies.

If it’s not clear already, I’d like to say that I like Liverpool’s previous manager. He didn’t compromise. Not when it came to his transfer policies. Either he‘d fork out tens of millions for the amazing talent he’s been eyeing for a while or he ends up spending a pittance for some unknown entity like say, David N’Gog, Jonjo Shelvey or Daniel Pacheco, even Lucas Leiva. Yes, at the moment they’re no world-beaters but at the very least, they have the potential to turn into magnificent players, at very reasonable costs.

Hodgson on the other hand, looks like he values experience. His track record certainly speaks for itself. Nothing particularly wrong with that really but when it comes at the expense of the selling Liverpool’s younger talents it starts to become a problem.

At the time of writing, Fulham’s Paul Konchesky looks like his on his way to Liverpool. I’m a fan of Konchesky and believe he is one of the more under-rated leftbacks in England. Unfortunately, it appears that on top of the usual cash amount, it will cost the club one Lauri Dalla Valle to obtain Konchesky’s services.

Who?

Pacheco’s name might be known by many at the moment but Dalla Valle wouldn’t be too far off either. The 19 year old Finnish striker is well-known to be one of Europe’s brightest talents and it looks like he’s on his way south to London while Konchesky at 29, makes his way North.

While there’s no guarantee that Dalla Valle would fully realise his potential over the coming years, I’d rather be patient and wait for Rome to be properly built with some of the world’s more exciting talent rather than look forward to a Trolak filled with a bunch of ageing Poulsens.

For the sake of the club, I’m hoping Roy really knows what he’s doing.


Note: No offense was meant towards the residents of Pekan Trolak. My experience of the place was almost 15 years ago at this stage. I'm sure the place is a bustling metropolis these days...

Nunca Caminarás Solo, Rafa

I hope the idiots out there are happy now. Idiots.

If the club don't find a replacement who's at least as good as Benitez, it's looking like one hell of a downward spiral for Liverpool Football Club.

Hang on, who else in their right mind would put up with the utter nonsense that the former manager had to put up with?

One can also argue all they want about Benitez's qualities. In my book though, if the man can make Djimi Traoré (yes, Djimi Traoré lest any of you out there forget) a European Champion, he IS a certified legend.

All the best Rafael Benítez Maudes. You'll be truly missed.YNWA, Rafa.