In Rafa we trust...

Disclaimer: If you are not into football, then don’t bother reading this post. What is in this post is my interpretation of what has been happening; I might be totally wrong or accurate. Point of this is to rant and voice my clear lack of satisfaction at what is happening in the boardrooms.

Been trying to get myself to write this rant for a while, I don’t know where to start. To describe the whole situation in a few words: We are f***ed. The club has been bought about a year ago by two American investors, Gillette and Hicks, this was the latest takeover in a series of several other which has seen the likes of both Manchester clubs, Chelsea, Newcastle, Birmingham, Chelsea amongst others changing hands. What makes this different is that ever since the 2007/2008 season started, problems have been occurring from left, right and center… The owners promised something, and are trying to do something totally different, used the term ‘trying’ because they are not even succeeding in their devilish contingency plan. They promised that they will invest from their own money, not throw the debt on to the books of the club like what a certain Malcolm Glazer and his family did a few miles away at Old Trafford. What they did is finance the takeover using debt, now, since that initial loan is about to expire and they have to pay it, they want to somehow get ANOTHER loan to pay for the original loan AND instead of taking liability for it, making the club and the holding company (Kop Holdings) bear with the loan.

What else have they done wrong? One of them comes out and gloats in November, when spats between Rafael Benetiz and them started regarding providing enough financial backing for player transfers during the January transfer window. What did that useless living object tell the press? He goes and tells the world that him and the other owner went and talked to the coach of the German national team in 2006 and discuss with him replacing Rafael Benetiz in case the club did not make it past the group stages in the Champions League, thankfully we made it through, and one normally would expect that nobody will ever know about that meeting between the owners, the German and his wife. Why did he come out and talk about it, then in the same amazing announcement provide assurance to Rafa saying that they are fully behind him and that he has their full support! Actions speak louder than words, and what he did was clearly unprofessional and more importantly, totally uncalled for. During that interview, he used terms such as that Klinsman (The German manager who for the record has NO experience whatsoever in managing clubs) was an “insurance policy” in case things did not go according to plan in Merseyside and that the ‘hiccups’ encountered in November regarding the transfers and financing were due to “bad communication” on Rafael Benetiz’s behalf! Outrageous, unacceptable and simply pathetic, the other owner has made it clear that he is quite unimpressed with his partner’s revelation, making the rift not only between manager and owners, but also owners themselves. Who else is to blame? The chief executive of our club, Rick Parry, he might be good for a midtable club, but he certainly lacks the ability to take this club further. All he cares about is his ego and himself, if it wasn’t due to his mismanagement and retarded decisions we would have been bought by DIC (Dubai Investment Corporation, or whatever it is called), but no, he opts to listen to the Americans instead because it would guarantee keeping his job. It’s becoming a nightmare, not a single week goes by without more confusion and uncertainty. The new stadium is still far from being built, despite the long wait (A decade or so me thinks), Javier Mascherano’s permanent stay is yet to be confirmed (We need 17M pounds for that, but even the bloody Yankees fail to see that we need a player of his caliber in our squad), we are already out of contention for the league title (We were realistically out of it by the end of December after a run of disappointing draws home and away). Some fans might question Rafa’s policies and his regime and say that there hasn’t been any major progress, but sacking him is NOT the way forward… The last thing we want is to sack one of our most ambitious and knowledgeable managers for almost two decades and become a laughing stock like a certain football club that is known as Newcastle United.

In Rafa we trust, but FOR FUCK’S SAKE GIVE THE MAN SOME AUTONOMY