f*** Off Redknapp

[Flight]

http://msn.football365.com/story/0,17033,8...5713202,00.html

 

RAFA `MANIPULATES` THE FANS - REDKNAPP

 

Former Liverpool star Jamie Redknapp has questioned Rafael Benitez's management and claims that he manipulates the club's fans.

 

On the eve of Liverpool's crunch Champions League showdown in Hungary against Debrecen - where they could fail to reach the last 16 for the first time under Benitez - Redknapp offered a wide-ranging criticism of the Anfield boss.

 

Redknapp believes Benitez should abandon the controversial zonal marking system and questioned whether Fernando Torres will want to stay if Liverpool are only in the Europa League next season.

 

Redknapp, who played more than 300 games for the club between 1991 and 2002, said: "They have won one in 10 now and fans will be thinking. They are firmly behind him, though, he manipulates the fans, he gets them how he wants them.

 

"But there comes a time, if they go out of Europe this week and then lose at Everton, that the fans are swayed and will say that we have to look at him now.

 

"That team is not really going anywhere. The problem you will get is that will Fernando Torres want to play in the Europa League? I don't think so.

 

"If they don't get into the top four at the end of this season, it will be a major problem.

 

"You have huge problems going on behind the scenes with the owners, but it is too easy to blame that. On the pitch the players are not playing well enough, that's a fact."

 

On Liverpool's defensive problems, Redknapp was equally damning.

 

He added on Sky Sports: "A few years ago zonal marking was the best format because they were one of the best defenders from set pieces.

 

"But the reason for that was that they had Peter Crouch and Sami Hyypia, two guys who are 6ft 5in plus.

 

"It doesn't matter how you defend when the ball comes in, zonal or man to man, they will clear it. Now you have a situation where people are not taking responsibility.

 

"You might have to turn round and say that zonal isn't working, let's go man for man. At the moment he is giving players excuses, teams look at it and think they will score against Liverpool."

[johngibo YPC]

mediocre c***

[matty]

stupid f***ing creep.

[CarraLegend]

Another one for my death list.

 

He's a s***house, his arl fella is a c*** aswell.

[Bigal]

f***ing bellend

[Rich Gobey]

"You have huge problems going on behind the scenes with the owners, but it is too easy to blame that. On the pitch the players are not playing well enough, that's a fact."

 

 

How can it be too easy to blame things on a huge problem.

[GWistooshort]

The problem you will get is that will Fernando Torres want to play in the Europa League? I don't think so.

 

That comment shows just how little he knows

[johngibo YPC]

Uefa cup was too good for that average c***

[MarkD]

Are you, given your position within the largest media outlet for football, providing an unbiased and critical opinion on all managers equally? No, because your old fella is immune to your insights....such as,

 

"you don't put a player like Robbie Keane on the bench?" where was he yesterday?

 

"you don't play Robbie Keane on the left?" Where has he played a lot this season to fit in Defoe/Crouch?

 

A c***...took the wages out of this club and did nothing to earn them.

[Sion]

A few years ago zonal marking was the best format because they were one of the best defenders from set pieces. the reason for that was that they had Peter Crouch and Sami Hyypia, two guys who are 6ft 5in plus.

 

Yeah it's not like Skrtel is 6ft4 and Agger is 6ft3 or anything

you wobbly faced t***

Edited November 23, 2009 by Sion

[Cam]

All managers manipulate fans, the eejit. Look at the successful ones lately... Rafa, Ferguson, Wenger, Mourinho.

 

As for his comments on Torres in the Europa League... probably right. And midgets defending... spot on but Rafa said that last week.

[Sion]

Yeah it's not like Skrtel is 6ft4 and Agger is 6ft3 or anything

you wobbly faced t***

 

I just realised that it was Jamie who said this. They're both t***s anyway. so my point still stands.

Edited November 23, 2009 by Sion

[Sir Tokyo Sexwale]

tomkins

 

Stan Collymore and Jamie Redknapp – two Reds I used to stick up for in the ‘90s, but who are now beyond a joke. To be honest, the cream suits debacle deserves to be their legacy. They failed to deliver enough on the pitch, now they put the boot in, week after week.

 

Time and again, I’d offer a defence on the finer side of Rednapp’s game, in the face of abuse that he was a bottler, a pretty boy, a party animal. More fool me, huh? It hurts to be wrong, but clearly I wasted my time with ingrates who it seems are only in the game for the money. Spice Boy? Alas, it seems so. Classless to the last.

 

Indeed, Redknapp even tells a funny story himself: Rafa manipulates the media. That’s right. “He manipulates the fans, he gets them how he wants them,” said the sport’s biggest Himbo.

 

Of course, of course! Rafa Benítez’s son, Jamie Benítez, works as a talking (vacant) head for the most powerful football news media in the country, and writes big-mouth stories in various newspapers.

 

Benítez is beyond criticism, because his son, Jamie, won’t dare question him, despite working in what is supposed to be a 100% unbiased news organisation. Instead, Jamie Benítez is always taking potshots at that foreign bloke, Harry Redknapp.

 

Oh, wait – maybe I got the names mixed up a bit there.

 

Yes, Benítez manipulates the press. That’s why he has given so many press interviews over the years. Oh, hang on, it’s actually just one in five years (the excellent discussion with Tony Evans of the Times), plus the meeting I was granted, based on the fact that I actually bother to do research when analysing the team.

 

But of course, Benítez has so many allies in Fleet Street and Sky Towers. There’s Tony Evans, Tony Barrett, Brian Reade and… hmm, scratching my head after that. You can add Guillem Balague, too, although he’s hardly a mainstream journo in England, beyond Spanish football.

 

It must be all the ex-Reds, then. Like Ronnie Whelan, an utter fool of a man – great player, utter plank in terms of acumen – who went on national Irish TV and said that the Liverpool team that faced Debrecen cost £250m. It cost a little over a quarter of that amount.

 

But hey, that media, eh? Rafa really has them in the palm of his hand, manipulating them. I mean, how dare people like myself point out that being wrong by almost 75% is unacceptable when judging a manager? Should I tell people that Ronnie Whelan only played 100 times for the Reds? Can I be that factually incorrect, to dismiss the man’s record, and demean him? 100 games would put him on a par with Dominic Matteo. Hardly fair of me, eh?

 

Or Graeme Souness? – a man who constantly criticises Benítez, despite having a far worse record as Liverpool manager. Souness – a man whose spending at Liverpool was on a par with Mourinho’s at Chelsea, in relative terms; a man who, in blowing most of the club’s riches (before the money ran dry) took the club from 1st down to 8th, and left an utter bag of b******s for Roy Evans, beyond the home-grown lads and Rob Jones.

 

Yes, these are Rafa’s friends in the media. Must be comforting for him, no?

 

Of course, Redknapp senior would never befriend journos in London drinking holes. He’d never manipulate anything; mud won’t stick to him. He has no connections, does he? He’d never use the media to help him in any way, shape or form. Indeed, he is a actually hermit, living in a cave and spending time in a monestery under a vow of silence. Of course, he doesn’t talk to the BBC, and he must have his reasons.

 

Jamie kindly tells us that the problems behind the scenes (with the owners) are partly to blame, but not wholly to blame. Of course, he doesn’t mention the Reds’ catastrophic injury crisis, that has decimated the side this season. Yet his dad can talk about his injury crisis, when he needs to.

 

What boils my blood is this, from last year:

 

“Every manager says their squad is stretched but if I hadn’t brought the five back that were cast aside when I came here, we’d be desperate,” said the Spurs boss. “We need some cover when we have injuries. You need a squad. Those five aren’t in the UEFA Cup squad so I’ve got kids out of the youth team because you have to have so many homegrown players in your squad.”

 

Or this, from 2002, when Portsmouth were struggling in the Championship:

 

“All the injuries we have are long-term. We are not going to kid ourselves, we are not going to run all over teams, we clawed a result today but at the start of the year no one knew who would finish higher, Portsmouth or Millwall, and they still don’t. There is a long way to go. I’m going to have to try to get some loans in now because I’m missing eight players.”

 

I don’t see Harry Redknapp having to defend his team in tough times from the attacks of his son. “Excuses, Harry!” says Redknapp Jnr? Of course not. “Excuses, Harry!” say ‘me old mucka’ London hacks? Of course not.

 

Can Harry mention such things without it being a case of manipulating the media? Surely a manager has a right to point out when loads of players are missing, and it be considered factual? In my book, he can. Why can’t Benítez?

 

I have no problem with Spurs. I have no problem with Harry Redknapp, beyond his constant exemption from criticism from one of the game’s most visible pundits. He’s a really good manager, if a little old fashioned for my tastes. And, lest we forget, totally and utterly unproven at a club expected to win trophies. He’s on a high right now, so fair play to him, but it’s only November. And he’s also got far better backing from the board, in terms of money pumped into the squad; it costs £50m more than Liverpool’s. But he’s still a good manager, who deserved some slack being cut in times when he was struggling, such as the season in which his team was relegated.

 

So it’s not a case of me attacking Harry, just asking why his son has to spend so much time and energy attacking Benítez, who has a far better record in every which way than Souness, Evans and Houllier, the three Liverpool managers he played under. (And I guess Jamie wouldn’t have liked any of them being constantly slated by someone like himself.)

 

As a Liverpool fan, on Liverpool sites, I defend the record of the Liverpool manager, because, given the club’s lack of financial clout, is more than sound. It is based on years and years of detailed research, to enable me to make fair comparisons. It is based on the realities of context, not some spurious whim of a hack. It is based on years of results, not a couple of bad months.

 

I don’t spend my time criticising Benítez, but then again, I don’t go into the ‘neutral’ national media to attack other managers. So therefore I feel I’m not a hypocrite.

 

However, I hate how Jamie criticises Rafa for his treatment of Robbie Keane, yet his own dad called Darren Bent – now a success at Sunderland – a worse finisher than Jamie’s mother. Wow, that’s great man-management, eh?

 

Maybe Spurs would have been better off getting the best out of Bent, rather than buying Crouch? – just using the kind of nonsense people throw at Benítez.

 

Again, slating Bent so publicly is Harry’s right, but for f***’s sake, stop being such an absolute hypocrite, Jamie, about nasty mean Rafa and cuddly old daddy.

 

‘You can’t bench players like Robbie Keane’ – ‘you can’t do that £20m players’, said Jamie last season. Yet Harry has done so this season.

 

‘You can’t play Keane on the left-wing’. Yet Harry has. And so on. Harry has a right to play his players when and where he wants. So does Benítez.

 

This Liverpool team “is not really going anywhere,” Jamie tells us. Well, it’s a team that went very far last season. But if there’s a crisis at Liverpool, it’s been largely injury driven. It’s not a Liverpool team; it a mish-mash of whoever’s fit at the time.

 

But I love this pearl of wisdom: “The problem you will get is that will Fernando Torres want to play in the Europa League? I don’t think so.”

 

Well, do Robbie Keane, Peter Crouch and Jermaine Defoe?

 

Of course, they’re not actually in Europe at all.

 

(Excuse my language, but can I be an utter c***, and come back if Spurs fail to qualify for the Champions League, and suggest all the players who might be unhappy at another year in the European wilderness? Can I start making a living putting the boot in to good managers who deserve better?)

 

For crying out loud, Torres was signed by Benítez, and has an outstanding goal record only since playing for Benítez.

 

Stop telling us what Torres will do when you don’t know him, or what draws him to Liverpool. He has the utmost respect for Benítez, and unlike a lot of the stuff you come out with, that really is a fact.

 

Non-football note: I will admit that Redknapp, as neither bald nor big-nosed, has probably never had to endure dates like this.

[surf]

that is absolutely ace. well in tomkins

[stressederic]

I've been warming to Tomkins an awful lot recently.

[Crazy Horse]

Maybe it's reverse pyschology from Jamie there. Nonetheless, it does make you long for the good old days when Crouchie would bravely head balls out of the box when we were defending set pieces.

 

I don't even remember a good Redknapp game for us. Please, no-one spoil the memories by pointing one out. Thinking about him now just reminds me of how far we come from the s***house side he used to captain.

[Gunga Din]

I've been warming to Tomkins an awful lot recently.

 

 

he's getting on my fecking nerves to be honest. i'd rather read a piece by someone with no obvious agenda. His pieces arent objective at all. some of it is painful. i get the impression we could get relegated having lost all 38 games, and Tomkins would still be wedged up Rafa's hole.

 

Obviously, and this gioes without saying, but Redknapp is an utter c***

[stressederic]

he's getting on my fecking nerves to be honest. i'd rather read a piece by someone with no obvious agenda. His pieces arent objective at all. some of it is painful. i get the impression we could get relegated having lost all 38 games, and Tomkins would still be wedged up Rafa's hole.

 

Obviously, and this gioes without saying, but Redknapp is an utter c***

 

Ideally we'd already have balanced and insightful sports journalism, but what we've got is, usually, utter s***. It's all about lurching from one crisis to another and spouting bulls*** enough times for it to become assumed knowledge.

 

Rafa gets a spectacularly bad deal from the majority of the press in this country and a lot of it is really really stupid. With that as the opposition I don't particularly mind someone like Tomkins kicking back against it.

 

He clearly has an agenda but then so does the rest of the media. Against that backdrop I'd rather get onboard with the guy who is defending the team and the manager.

[Gunga Din]

Ideally we'd already have balanced and insightful sports journalism, but what we've got is, usually, utter s***. It's all about lurching from one crisis to another and spouting bulls*** enough times for it to become assumed knowledge.

 

Rafa gets a spectacularly bad deal from the majority of the press in this country and a lot of it is really really stupid. With that as the opposition I don't particularly mind someone like Tomkins kicking back against it.

 

He clearly has an agenda but then so does the rest of the media. Against that backdrop I'd rather get onboard with the guy who is defending the team and the manager.

 

 

no, what we have is, when someone posts something that is complimentary, its "Good article from such and such" followed by loads of "boss article" quotes

 

when someone posts something we dont like its "s*** article from such and such" followed by much hand wringing and almost a competition to see who can be the most outraged

 

there isnt an football forum of any team that doesnt have a persecution complex about the media, be it us, the mancs, arsenal or whoever

[stressederic]

no, what we have is, when someone posts something that is complimentary, its "Good article from such and such" followed by loads of "boss article" quotes

 

when someone posts something we dont like its "s*** article from such and such" followed by much hand wringing and almost a competition to see who can be the most outraged

 

there isnt an football forum of any team that doesnt have a persecution complex about the media, be it us, the mancs, arsenal or whoever

 

Oh I agree, and have made that exact point in the past, but I also think that, for whatever reason, Rafa Benitez is an easy target for lazy journalists, pundits and ex-players.

 

It'd be nice if the club was a bit more aggressive at times in dealing with some of that stuff, but it's probably not practical. Tomkins isn't a great writer, but I'm happy to let him be an attack dog at times.

[Earl Hafler]

he's getting on my fecking nerves to be honest. i'd rather read a piece by someone with no obvious agenda. His pieces arent objective at all. some of it is painful. i get the impression we could get relegated having lost all 38 games, and Tomkins would still be wedged up Rafa's hole.

 

Obviously, and this gioes without saying, but Redknapp is an utter c***

 

I think Tomkins is dredful in general but that piece is just the ticket.

Edited November 23, 2009 by Earl Hafler

[Gunga Din]

Oh I agree, and have made that exact point in the past, but I also think that, for whatever reason, Rafa Benitez is an easy target for lazy journalists, pundits and ex-players.

 

It'd be nice if the club was a bit more aggressive at times in dealing with some of that stuff, but it's probably not practical. Tomkins isn't a great writer, but I'm happy to let him be an attack dog at times.

 

 

1 win in 10 is going to make him a target, it would make any manager of a big side a target.

 

and the club shouldbt be commenting on any media stories, full stop.

Edited November 23, 2009 by Gunga Din

[uppsala]

Rafa isn't always honest though is he? "we are building something special here".

Am I the only one bored hearing this? He's put 67 players on the books ffs, whats he building? I bet he doesn't even know.

 

I would like to see Stevie G sold in January. He's 29 now and deserves to win major honours. Don't think he's gonna do that with us.

[Leo No.8]

I would like to see Stevie G sold in January. He's 29 now and deserves to win major honours. Don't think he's gonna do that with us.

 

And that, if its a serious comment puts you right in with Jamie Redknapp as a complete berk.

[redjersey]

Tomkins isn't a journalist. He's a Liverpool fan who writes and blogs about the team he supports. That is his agenda.

 

If you want 'objectivity', stick with Harry Harris or those t***s on Sunday Supplement.