Good article, but the more I read the madder I get. Come wed night Rafa is going to be damned if he does and damned if he doesn't.
So Rafa Benitez reckons he doesn't have to win trophies this year. Have you finished laughing yet? Surely football is all about winning things; it's a tiresome mantra we hear all too often. Sadly, for his critics, Benitez is absolutely correct. His idiot employers may not agree but let's forget all the wind and pish and look at some facts. If I was to ask most neutrals who was the most successful manager - Benitez or Arsene Wenger, I'd guess most would say Wenger. It sounds right doesn't it? Arsenal play magnificent football, Wenger is erudite, has a clear vision for the club and consistently develops startlingly good talent. Liverpool have just lost at Fulham. Arsenal seem miles ahead. But look at the facts. If you put Rafa's Premier League record up against Wenger's since his arrival in 2004, Benitez is simply more successful if, and it's a crucial if, you judge success by trophies and league positions. In his five years at the club he has won the Champions League, the FA Cup and the Super Cup. He has taken Liverpool to a higher league finish than Arsenal three times out of five. In those same five years Arsene Wenger has won just one FA Cup. They've both been runners-up in the Premier League, Champions League and League Cup once since 2004/05. It's close but in the five seasons Wenger and Benitez have competed against each other, the Spaniard is, by this measure, ahead of Wenger. So not that bad then. Are Arsenal about to sack Wenger? Of course not. Only the criminally stupid would consider Wenger a failure. So why does Rafa attract such prolonged criticism when the man he has outperformed in the past five seasons rightly gets very little? This is partly because Wenger has built capital with three league titles and four FA Cups since his arrival, but in the current climate of short-termism and collective amnesia, that counts for less and less. Mostly, it's because Arsenal have played some simply sublime football even when not winning anything, for which Wenger is rightly lauded. More damaging to Benitez' cause is the accusation that his sides are too cautious, and simply don't play good enough football. Perhaps if they were playing like Arsenal and achieving the same results, his critics would back off. But that's unrealistic. Wenger has been in situ for eight years longer and built the club in his own image against a largely stable background. Benitez has not had that luxury and yet has still done better than Arsenal in his tenure. People say he is cold, prickly, and even arrogant and doesn't man-manage well. Without being on the inside, it's impossible to say, however, even if it's true, let me state again, it's delivered better results than Wenger's supposedly superior methods in this period. Surely, given Wenger's well-deserved stellar reputation, this should be a cause for celebration amongst Liverpool fans and should shut up his critics. They constantly snipe at his managerial style, his transfer records and his tactics in a way that no-one would dream of doing about Wenger but once again, I say look at the results. They might not always have played more attractive football but they have finished higher more often and won more trophies. And on the cheap, he has brought the finest striker of his generation to the club in Torres. Let's also not forget Liverpool were a massive 14 points better than Arsenal last year. Without going over the behind-the-scenes machinations again - I wrote enough about them a couple of weeks ago - Benitez has out-performed Wenger against a background of doubt and uncertainty. It's only eight weeks until the transfer window opens and he still hasn't a clue if any money will be available to him. So he can't plan ahead with any detail. That's no way to run a business. People who say he should be doing better forget that Liverpool are trying to over-throw a couple of football behemoths in Manchester United and Chelsea; clubs with exceptional resources in Chelsea's case and exceptional pedigree and pulling power in United's. This is a humongous task. Over-hauling Chelsea last season was an exceptional achievement and not getting past United is a failure every club has experienced for 11 out of the last 17 seasons. They are simply an awesome organisation led by an extraordinary man in Ferguson. You can't just overthrow them that easily. Chelsea threw over £500 million and six managers at it and only managed to do it twice. I mean, let's get a perspective here. Wenger is rightly acclaimed as a managerial genius but even he has only won three league titles in 13 years and two of those were achieved before the Abramovitch money transformed Chelsea. This is the size of Benitez' task. The fact is progress can't always be made in a smooth, straight line, especially when there is so much turmoil at the club. The road to victory can be a bumpy one. All the Benitez haters who want to see the back of him should realise that he has constructed a formidable power base at the club. All his men are in place in all the key staffing positions. He has almost certainly got a prohibitively expensive pay-out clause in his contract should he be sacked and he signed an extension to 2014 in March. Unless he wants to, it's unlikely that he's going anywhere soon, regardless of this season's results. Getting rid of him would involve a revolution at the club which no-one can be certain would turn out positively. Indeed, things could get much, much worse. Imagine if rather than under-achieving, Rafa has over-achieved so far, given the circumstances he's worked in. His critics need to consider that as a real possibility. This is one tough, some would say impossible, gig he's playing. And anyway, no top-class manager would want his job - working under a couple of comedians like Hicks and Gillett and constantly being on the verge of financial meltdown. Until the club is sold, stabilised and resources delivered, Liverpool is a poisoned chalice. Forget all this Jose Mourinho nonsense, you can't afford him and he wouldn't touch the club in its present state - he's far too canny an operator. This season might turn out to be a poor one by Rafa's standards. So be it. Everyone should be allowed an occasional poor season. When Arsenal has a dip in form, it's called a 'transitional' season. But at Liverpool, it's called a crisis. All concerned need the kind of patience and understanding assigned to Wenger. The size of Liverpool's task - to win the league - is being radically under-estimated by his fiercest opponents. Contrary to popular belief, Benitez isn't a failure at Liverpool, on the contrary, he's already achieved so much. Sacking him now wouldn't be surprising - but it would be an act of monumental stupidity.
Great article and agree with everything said in it. Gettinbg rid of Rafa would put us back about 5 years. Does anybody really want that?
Should be mandatory reading for all the Rafa-out people before they go any further. Stop and think, our club could be on the brink of a massive decline if we act rashly now.