Thetownend.com

Offered a severance deal to leave Liverpool.    :bye:

Fred, you applying for the job mate?

they could not afford me

Oh...joy...a summer of media speculation focused on Liverpool...can't wait.

I for one hope Fred will take it despite the lack of money Liverpool have.

Didn't realise that Fred was in the frame! What an awesome signing that would be for Liverpool!

Plus it'd take about 2 months before you told The yanks where to stuff it.

Who that is decent will replace Benitez, the club is in turmoil with the owners wanting to sell up and the fan's hating the owners, Gerrard possibly leaving after the WC and if he goes Torres is likely to follow him out.

They need someone like Martin O Neil with a proven track record in english football but they are more than likely to end up with Mark Hughes who's only job at Man City see him spend lot's of money and not come up with and trophy's.

I have this morning opened negotiations with a view to becoming the next Liverpool manager.

Detailed talks are taking place between Tom Hicks, George Gillett and my agent, or Mum as I call her.  I will be making no further comment until these talks are concluded.

The curse of the new contract strikes again. It's amazing how many managers lose their job within signing an extended long term deal.

Benitez deserves the boot as he's overrated. They won the Chumpions League in his first season down to luck. He's too negative away from home in the League to ever win the title.

Anyway, it'll be interesting to see who goes there despite having no money due to the Yanks.

Benitez won 2 La Liga titles with Valencia....breaking the Madrid/Barca duoploy is an achievement.

I think any manager needs luck to win the CL.....last year Barca had it when Ovrebro missed 3 nailed on pens....this year Inter had it when Barca had to go by bus, then were awarded an offside goal....and Bojan's last minute winner was wrongly ruled out for handball.

It's probably why no club has yet won it back to back...

So Mum's the word then ?

Will this affect our link with Liverpool? Or is that between chairmen, not managers?

I always think these "links" are a bit of wishful thinking....Crewe were supposed to have had a link with Liverpool....never did them much good.

Occasionally you get one, whereby someone like Harry Redknapp developed a bit of a taste for Bormuff, so helped them out with a loan of Defoe and Ferdinand.

The Man City thing comes from Brain Marwod who will be fondly remembered for a diving header v Shitheads in his brief stay at the CG....can't imagine it was long enough though for him to have developed an affection for the club.

We've seen in the past how Spurs used the situation....they got one of our promising kids...who of course did fuck all and we got Jamie Slabber.

I understand what you are saying Reg, but personally I'd put a lot more faith in Fitton to get it done "right" than whichever clown organised that deal with Spurs. 

They're green, They're plum, they take it up the bum.

Maybe....but Mr Fitton has been recently alluding to the fact that not all people in football are gentlemen. 

Actions talk louder than words and I imagine every club that loaned us a player was more than happy come the end of the season. Ferry played most of the season, Ward every game he was here and Darby got a good run at the end - plus they all got to play at Wembley. Even the players that weren't so successful got a chance and a good few games.

That is a lot more important than contacts on their own. If we can't sign Ferry, I'd say we've got an excellent chance of getting someone just as good if not better for next season as the club will know they can trust us.

Fitton spoke previous that the links are not just at manager level, e.g. Man City when he met with other's involved but I don't think he met Mancini, so I suspect with RAfa going it won't have an effect as I expect his connections are with Dalglish who looks after the youth's after we sold them the youngster

was very lucky at liverpool and dug out by torres and gerrard.
they are right to fuck him off out of there now

Rafa is the least of their problems. In fact, he's one of the few things they've got going for them.

Everything I read about Liverpool reinforces the joy I still feel at supporting a football club that is no longer run by a bunch of thieving cunts.

They are all at it at that level, look at how much debt the likes of Chelsea, Man City & Utd have, how do they sustain that sort of wage bills they must have, the owners have to keep dipping into their very deep pockets to keep them at that level, like a lot of big clubs across europe without the rich owners they wouldn't survive

Except Liverpool don't have rich owners. They have a pair of leeches who have loaded the club with the debt they had to incur to buy it, who syphon off what money the club makes over and above the amount needed to service that debt, and who have tied the manager's hands behind his back by allowing him to spend only a fraction of what he brings in through player sales in the transfer market.

Add to that some fantastical plans about realising a huge profit when some mythical new stadium gets built (for which they have nothing more than planning permission), and an unrealistic asking price for the club based on this fantastical theoretical future return, and it all sounds alarmingly familiar. Except on a grand scale. They're going to need an Andrew Fitton of epic proportions to dig them out.

Benitez has gone, left by mutual consent = given massive seven figure payoff.

Left by mutual consent = finally forced out for having the balls to stand up to the people systematically destroying the club, settling for a fraction of what he was contractually owed.

We will be playing Liverpool soon at this rate. And not in the Cup.

Six million quid.

Fuck me, Fred Goodwin thinks he's pulled a fast one there.

whatever the financial problems are,benitez signed a load of donkeys, and spent plenty of dosh in doing so.

Lucas, dossena and degen to name a few.

Mo malps has applied already

Is that what they reckon he got? I heard it was substantially above the £3m that had been quoted before.

But they've got a bit of a bargain, his outstanding contract was worth £15m (I think). Though on the other hand, if they'd waited it out they might have got Inter Milan to pay them for him.

I have a mental image now of an enormous Andrew Fitton going on a Godzilla style rampage past the Liver Building, the Cathedrals etc before being trapped in the Albert Dock and crushing US attack helicopters in his mighty claws. And it's making me smile :)

 :doh:

Me too. Now ;)

Wilson to Liverpool?

Benitez to Inter, O'Neill to Liverpool

That image is making me beam.

I feel sorry for him in a way-so called"player power" fucking sucks!Why dont scouse pricks like Stevie fucking G and Carragher just get on with their job instead of sulking and blaming the manager,they've both been shit this season.Besides,Benitez cant be that shit if he's moving straight into another top job.

Fully agree arriba.

It summed it up in their opening game against Spurs, whilst Spurs had 7 established Prem players on the bench, Liverpool had crap like Lucas plus nobodies I had never heard of.

I said then that Liverpool wouldn't make the Chumpions League, and I've been proved right. At the end of the day he bought a player from Italy for £20m who wasn't fit.

Anyway, I see his contract is more watertight than his guarantee of fourth place.

A Rafa guarantee...not worth the paper it's written on.

I just think he lost the plot a little. His signings were poor. The players lacked the belief and lost all confidence. His interviews post match were hardly helpful in that. I don't think it's all his fauly though. I think he's an alright manager but when the club is being run rather poorly and the debts are high it's hard to compete with the likes on Man City and Spurs who seem to be able to spend a fair bit these days. I think Hodgson is just the man they need to turn it around. Not some big name manager who's not really that great like Hiddink.

I wonder if the 'dream ticket' of Barnes and McAteer will get the job?

Since the Americans don't have a clue...Don't be surprised.

Wayne Rooney to retire and take over as manager next week.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSzNYstaAh0

Lets talk about FACTS.

Kenny Dalglish & the new MD are leasding the search for the new manager - I'm sure Mark Hughes CV will be the first in their inbox

Hiddink.

Got to be Roy Hodgson.

Part one confirmed...

Didn't take him long then, dont think he will do that well at Inter.

His tactics always seem a bit bizzare.

He'll do well in Italy.

I was reading up on some bits the other day about Rafa Benitez and to be fair as a person he is a plank but i do think the british public have jumped on the bandwagon in regards to his tactics.

In his 6 years at Lpool Man Utd and Chelsea won 10 trophies each,Liverpool won 4 and got to 3 finals.That's 7 finals in 6 years. That's not too shabby. Also noticed that while he spent £220m on players he also bought in £160m in player sales.

It's clear they have serious problems at that club and our pretty much fucked but to be fair if you look at Benitez Valencia and Liverpool records i don't think you can say he is a bad manager.

Oh dear what are Inter thinking? Jose to Rafa? And I thought the American geezers at Anfield had lost the plot.

He is just right for Italy and Italy is just right for him. I remember his Valencia team very well, very cautious & un-Spanish-like. They could've easily passed for an Italian team in a Spanish kit. A strategy that is based on the fear of conceding, rather than the positivity of trying to go for it and attack. It has brought him success so fair play to him, but I would expect more if I supported a big club & was paying through the nose for top flight football every week.

It's obvious that he did the same with Liverpool (unless they were playing a shit team), and their fans are being very vocal about wanting to see their team revert back to their more traditional style of open, attacking football.

He'll do well at Inter because he's a good manager.

Agree. A lot of people in this country dont like or rate him but his record is very good at 2 clubs where he never had the same money to spend as his direct competition.

Yes he spent quite a lot of money as liverpool manager , but he only had half of that money though sales in the 1st place. At a guess I'd say Spurs, Chelsea, Man United & City all have higher net transfer spends over the past 5 years.  Its easy to forget that this clueless shit manager almost won the prmier league 2 seasons ago. He made major mistakes this season with his signings and the depth of their squad was exposed by injuries. His squad wasnt strong enough because he focussed on the 1st XI and didnt have the money to have £10m - £15m players sitting on the bench like Chelsea and Man Utd do (Aquilani excepted)

Are you talking about Benitez or Mourinho?

Agreed. A good manager - with an Italian-type philosophy.


Good shout. This will be the smoothest transition for Inter.

Everyone bangs on about Benitez net spend, so what?

He's paid to win trophies not to balance the books.

Are you talking about Benitez or Wenger?

Both...

Although Wenger is somewhat questionable!!

Because going on DRS figures he had an average net spend of £10m a year with which to improve the team. Most of the top half of the premier league would be more than that. He didnt have the money to compete on a level playing field with Man U or Chelsea, or even be close

I've always rated Benitez. He's had to put up with never ending shit at Liverpool and did a pretty good job with the resources he had, plus some of his rants were ace.

Turns out he is a pretty decent bloke as well, he's just donated £96,000 to the Hillsborough Family Support Group.

YEP

Heard that too, just walked in unnanounced off the street and wrote out a cheque for £96k, £1k for everyone that lost thier life.

Fair fucking play is what I say.

I'd third that (including jonny as the originator). Well done to the be-goateed maestro. Doesn't make a blind bit of difference as to whether he's a good or bad manager though

nope

but it's a mark of the man

As opposed to the goatee, which is more a mark on the man

He is also a magician!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Vtjf4SWr2E

A fine gesture certainly, but he has just received a £5m + pay off and walked into another top job.

(I'm feeling a bit curmudgeonly today) - and I wanted to use that word somewhere.

Fair play to him, he did not have to do it and could have walked away with his money but I suppose it shows the respect he had for supporters that he has done this