The new, new manager thread - Pt 3

[billyiddo]

i was thinking the same thing when i read that reply

 

[Superted]

I'd be interested in hearing what posters who have him as their first choice think the biggest risks of appointing Rafa would be.

Rafa had a habit of pressuring the board publicly for funds at his time at Liverplol. I can see that happening again and a potential blow up between him and Levy.

I don't by that he'd alienate the fans with boring football. Plol fans still love him. He even had some Chelsea fans started to turn.

And the only mind game he lost was against Fergie so that's not an issue.

 

[indianspur]

Ok, I need a sanity check here.

Would someone else mind reading my post and tell me if it makes me seem like I have anger issues? Or if I in any way implied that grassroots had said that Poch was ****? Or that I implied that Grassroots insulted him? Or in any way warranted that response from Grassroots?

My post was in reply to the question "Then what is (the main selling point for Poch)?"

no anger issues there.........just that you find the straw man argument tiring

 

[milo]

i suppose it's as reasonable as LVG to be fair.

I think that LvG was on if a bigger club didn't come up but I can completely understand why he wanted to keep his options open until the end of the season.

 

[Grassroots]

Ok, I need a sanity check here.

Would someone else mind reading my post and tell me if it makes me seem like I have anger issues? Or if I in any way implied that grassroots had said that Poch was ****? Or that I implied that Grassroots insulted him? Or in any way warranted that response from Grassroots?

My post was in reply to the question "Then what is (the main selling point for Poch)?"

Ok maybe I was being over sensitive and the first paragraph read that way to me but was not
no offence was intended and I was still a little miffed with the other kinda angryness
that seemed to be coming my way
If offence was taken I apologise

 

[Finney Is Back]

Fair enough.

I see the positives to all 3 but FDB would be far behind the other 2 candidates for me (and Poch would be behind Rafa of course). FDB hasn't really achieved anything to write home about but i do like that he favours 4-3-3.

I find that view quite interesting.... If FDB hassn't achieved anything to write home about (first title in 7 years and then 4 back to back with Ajax) then surely Pochetino hasn't achieved anything to write home about either.

Doesn't winning the league 4 times in a row in The Netherlands rank a little higher than one 8th place finish in England? Even if those league wins in the Netherlands were achieved while managing their biggest team of all in a league where only 3 or 4 clubs can realistically win the league?

I mean - let's assume that Man Utd fail to win the league for the next 6 years going through LVG and 2 or 3 other managers in the process, then a new manager comes along and gets them 4 titles in a row. Would you not consider that manager to be a bloody good manager?

 

[SUIYHA]

I can't believe how many of you actually want Benitez. That would be an unmitigated disaster. Several reasons why:




1. Benitez likes to spend a lot of money. He has done so everywhere. He signed 59 players in six seasons, an average of just under 10 per season. Even following the sale of Cavani last summer, he still had a big net spend with Napoli. When Hicks and Gillett tried to limit his spending, the team flopped and finished 7th when they had been expected to challenge for the title. And Benitez had no problem coming out blaming the owners, even while still Liverpool manager. Levy is not going to give him the kind of funds he'll want. It's not going to work.

2. He is outspoken and confrontational. Like Hicks and Gillett, he also publicly fell out with the Valencia board, and then with Massimo Moratti at Inter. Take a wild ****ing guess what his working relationship with Levy and Baldini would be like.

3. Poor league form. Traditionally, the fact that Benitez over rotates his squad and tactics means that there is a major lack of consistency throughout the season. Inter and Napoli were never realistically in the title race under him. Liverpool didn't even get out of the blocks in most of his six seasons (only one did he even get within 8 points of the eventual winners) , and Valencia are the only team he's ever won the league with, with 75 and 77 points. In his final season in Spain, Real Madrid lost 5 games in a row after selling Makelele and refusing to sign any defensive players, whereas Barcelona were going through a major rebuilding process, the year before they'd been in the bottom half as late as May, and then were in the bottom half mid-way again through the 03-04 season until Ronaldinho inspired them to a late title challenge. The Valencia side he inherited hadn't won the league in a while, but they weren't exactly complete nobodies - they'd reached the Champions League final in two successive seasons before his appointment and had star players like Aimar, Vicente, Baraja and Ayala in the ranks. But in La Liga's current climate, there's not a chance that Benitez' team would have finished any higher than 4th. Point is, he has never come out on top during a title challenge against in-form big clubs. Next season, there's a good chance we'll have at least five big clubs in good form, six if you also count Everton. A cup win is great, and Spurs have traditionally been a cup team, but those rely more on luck than anything else, and as we saw in 2008, winning a cup didn't stop Berbatov and Keane ****ing off.

4. Over-reliance on star players. Too often Liverpool were bailed out by a bit of magic from Gerrard or Torres. How would he cope this time if we miss out on CL football and the bigger European clubs come swooping for Eriksen and co?

5. Boring football. I know at times his teams have been good to watch. When Liverpool beat Real Madrid 4-0 for example. But generally, it was painful. I can't deal with that. I can't face watching another Benitez Vs Mourinho 0-0. I don't expect Spurs to be the best team in the land, but I do expect them to deliver some sort of entertainment if I am to spend £50 on a match ticket. Some of you may feel otherwise, but if the football is boring and results start to dip, the fans and Levy will turn on him, and it's inevitable that results will dip at some point. Liverpool fans tolerated this because they'd been equally boring under Houllier. None of them would swap him for Rodgers now.

6. Downright crazy transfer decisions. Xabi Alonso has been one of the finest deep lying playmakers of his generation. Benitez quite publically tried tapping up Gareth Barry, a vastly inferior player, which ****ed Alonso off to the extent that he asked to leave. He replaced him with Alberto Aquilani. He spent £20m on Robbie Keane and then sent him back to us for £12m only 6 months later. He signed a plethora of strikers, including Dirk Kuyt, Peter Crouch, Djibril Cisse, Craig Bellamy and Andrey Voronin, with Torres being the only decent goalscorer he managed to find in six years. Baldini's influence may negate this risk a little, but it's hardly a good thing when you've got such a poor track record of judging players that you sign.

7. Poor with young players. We've got a young squad with a few players coming through that will be having make or break seasons next year. With the exception of Agger, I can't really think of any young players (say, aged 23 or under) that Benitez has really developed and turned them into stars. Babel, N'Gog, El Zhar, Sinama-Pongolle.....all highly rated when they joined the club, all complete flops. Benitez is hardly the man to take our younger players up to the next level.

8. He's a ****ing ****. I've never liked Benitez. Arrogant with no charm. The way he tapped up Robbie Keane was so classless. The way he came out and said the Tottenham board were desperate to sell Jermain Defoe in the build-up to a game with them. The whole "facts" rant. He's a complete prick and I don't want him anywhere near Spurs.


In conclusion - Benitez COULD replicate the success he's had at other clubs with Spurs. But unless we gave him a **** load of money to spend, got rid of Baldini, convinced our fans to stop wanting good football, and took out two or three clubs above us in the league, it's not going to happen.


FDB or Pochettino for me. And I'll write tonight, about why I've decided that Poch is my clear first choice.

 

[Gutter Boy]

The more I think about it, and the more this interesting debate on here flows, the more I'm swaying towards Team Poch.

 

[braineclipse]

i was thinking the same thing when i read that reply

Cheers.

no anger issues there.........just that you find the straw man argument tiring

Cheers to you too. You're right about the straw man, that's how I feel.

Ok maybe I was being over sensitive and the first paragraph read that way to me but was not
no offence was intended and I was still a little miffed with the other kinda angryness
that seemed to be coming my way
If offence was taken I apologise

If you feel I've unfairly called one of your arguments a straw man then it should be easy enough for you to argue against that. It's not a big deal, I've certainly said worse to people on here.

I wasn't offended, I've also have heard people say worse to me without being offended. I was just very surprised to see that kind of a reply because I wasn't angry at all when I wrote, I re-read my post and couldn't really see the source of it.

Like you say, opinions differ, just because I'm arguing against your opinion doesn't mean it's something personal against you. But I really think that you have to accept that others will argue against your opinions, even sometimes argue somewhat harshly against them if they disagree.

If you do have those copy-pasted opinions of people disagreeing you talked about I would genuinely be interested in seeing them if you think they're well argued, rational points about the subject.

 

[Kingdawson]

I find that view quite interesting.... If FDB hassn't achieved anything to write home about (first title in 7 years and then 4 back to back with Ajax) then surely Pochetino hasn't achieved anything to write home about either.

Doesn't winning the league 4 times in a row in The Netherlands rank a little higher than one 8th place finish in England? Even if those league wins in the Netherlands were achieved while managing their biggest team of all in a league where only 3 or 4 clubs can realistically win the league?

I mean - let's assume that Man Utd fail to win the league for the next 6 years going through LVG and 2 or 3 other managers in the process, then a new manager comes along and gets them 4 titles in a row. Would you not consider that manager to be a bloody good manager?

Did you read my next post about Poch?

 

[LutonSpurs]

Wow. SUIHYA that was intense. Good points.

 

[Kingdawson]

At least with Poch i've seen with my own eyes what he's about. Attacking brand of football, good media handling, solid defensively, 4-2-3-1 formation...yes i like what i see. I also like the fact that Lamela would almost certainly be an integral part of our team if he was manager.

..

 

[braineclipse]

1. Conversely it could be argued he had no pressure as had they been relegated everyone would’ve said well they were 2 divisions lower 2 seasons ago perhaps the Championship is their level.

2. Is that because of him or just natural development

3. 8th is mid table, they are equidistant pointwise from 4th and 3rd bottom.

4. 4th may only be 4 spots above but its 26 points away, or NINE WINS. Even our 2 places higher was 13 points ahead of them. The gulf between 8th onwards is massive.

5. Conversely a manager who had consistently finished mid-table and above failed miserably at a top 4 club which could be seen as a bad sign of managerial ability can be transferred.

6. Now these are counter argumnets for the sake of arguing but for every positive you can see an equal negative.
I am still not convinced we want to go the “might be good” route and at this point we need a proven manager.

1. We'll just have to disagree on that one. Had they gotten relegated I think he would have faced massive criticism, as would the chairman for bringing him in. Perhaps Cortese would have stuck with him as he clearly rated him very highly, but I think most of the media and many fans would have been really unhappy.

2. Most likely a combination of the two. Point being that bringing so many players on to a higher level, from different age groups, seems impressive to me. It's the kind of getting the best out of good players that I think would do us really well.

3. Not sure what your point is in regards to what I said.

4. In comparison to other managers like when we hired Ramos and AVB or now when we consider Poch to FdB though. I think 8th in the Premier League is a much more similar to the challenge we face than winning the Portuguese league with Porto for example.

5. Not sure how this is relevant to what I said either. Of course that could happen. I doubt you're arguing that managerial ability can't be transferred so I'm not sure what you're arguing. My point is that we're in a position where we'll have to take control in well over half the games we play, if we go for someone that has impressed at a smaller club, but only done so with a counter attacking style I think that's harder to transfer to a higher level than someone who plays a more attacking style.

6. They might be, and that can be an interesting approach to a discussion, but I don't quite see that you've argued those points convincingly.

The best "proven manger" option seems to be Benitez. For me it remains close between the 3 of Benitez, FdB and Poch. I'm not convinced that it's true that we must go for a proven manager at this point.

 

[SUIYHA]

Benitez is a "proven manager" when certain good conditions are met. He is also a "proven failure" when certain bad conditions are met. At Spurs, he has all of the bad conditions and none of the good ones to work with. And that's why I think it's a stupid idea to even consider him, even if he would consider us.

 

[braineclipse]

I can't believe how many of you actually want Benitez. That would be an unmitigated disaster. Several reasons why:




1. Benitez likes to spend a lot of money. He has done so everywhere. He signed 59 players in six seasons, an average of just under 10 per season. Even following the sale of Cavani last summer, he still had a big net spend with Napoli. When Hicks and Gillett tried to limit his spending, the team flopped and finished 7th when they had been expected to challenge for the title. And Benitez had no problem coming out blaming the owners, even while still Liverpool manager. Levy is not going to give him the kind of funds he'll want. It's not going to work.

2. He is outspoken and confrontational. Like Hicks and Gillett, he also publicly fell out with the Valencia board, and then with Massimo Moratti at Inter. Take a wild ****ing guess what his working relationship with Levy and Baldini would be like.

3. Poor league form. Traditionally, the fact that Benitez over rotates his squad and tactics means that there is a major lack of consistency throughout the season. Inter and Napoli were never realistically in the title race under him. Liverpool didn't even get out of the blocks in most of his six seasons (only one did he even get within 8 points of the eventual winners) , and Valencia are the only team he's ever won the league with, with 75 and 77 points. In his final season in Spain, Real Madrid lost 5 games in a row after selling Makelele and refusing to sign any defensive players, whereas Barcelona were going through a major rebuilding process, the year before they'd been in the bottom half as late as May, and then were in the bottom half mid-way again through the 03-04 season until Ronaldinho inspired them to a late title challenge. The Valencia side he inherited hadn't won the league in a while, but they weren't exactly complete nobodies - they'd reached the Champions League final in two successive seasons before his appointment and had star players like Aimar, Vicente, Baraja and Ayala in the ranks. But in La Liga's current climate, there's not a chance that Benitez' team would have finished any higher than 4th. Point is, he has never come out on top during a title challenge against in-form big clubs. Next season, there's a good chance we'll have at least five big clubs in good form, six if you also count Everton. A cup win is great, and Spurs have traditionally been a cup team, but those rely more on luck than anything else, and as we saw in 2008, winning a cup didn't stop Berbatov and Keane ****ing off.

4. Over-reliance on star players. Too often Liverpool were bailed out by a bit of magic from Gerrard or Torres. How would he cope this time if we miss out on CL football and the bigger European clubs come swooping for Eriksen and co?

5. Boring football. I know at times his teams have been good to watch. When Liverpool beat Real Madrid 4-0 for example. But generally, it was painful. I can't deal with that. I can't face watching another Benitez Vs Mourinho 0-0. I don't expect Spurs to be the best team in the land, but I do expect them to deliver some sort of entertainment if I am to spend £50 on a match ticket. Some of you may feel otherwise, but if the football is boring and results start to dip, the fans and Levy will turn on him, and it's inevitable that results will dip at some point. Liverpool fans tolerated this because they'd been equally boring under Houllier. None of them would swap him for Rodgers now.

6. Downright crazy transfer decisions. Xabi Alonso has been one of the finest deep lying playmakers of his generation. Benitez quite publically tried tapping up Gareth Barry, a vastly inferior player, which ****ed Alonso off to the extent that he asked to leave. He replaced him with Alberto Aquilani. He spent £20m on Robbie Keane and then sent him back to us for £12m only 6 months later. He signed a plethora of strikers, including Dirk Kuyt, Peter Crouch, Djibril Cisse, Craig Bellamy and Andrey Voronin, with Torres being the only decent goalscorer he managed to find in six years. Baldini's influence may negate this risk a little, but it's hardly a good thing when you've got such a poor track record of judging players that you sign.

7. Poor with young players. We've got a young squad with a few players coming through that will be having make or break seasons next year. With the exception of Agger, I can't really think of any young players (say, aged 23 or under) that Benitez has really developed and turned them into stars. Babel, N'Gog, El Zhar, Sinama-Pongolle.....all highly rated when they joined the club, all complete flops. Benitez is hardly the man to take our younger players up to the next level.

8. He's a ****ing ****. I've never liked Benitez. Arrogant with no charm. The way he tapped up Robbie Keane was so classless. The way he came out and said the Tottenham board were desperate to sell Jermain Defoe in the build-up to a game with them. The whole "facts" rant. He's a complete prick and I don't want him anywhere near Spurs.


In conclusion - Benitez COULD replicate the success he's had at other clubs with Spurs. But unless we gave him a **** load of money to spend, got rid of Baldini, convinced our fans to stop wanting good football, and took out two or three clubs above us in the league, it's not going to happen.


FDB or Pochettino for me. And I'll write tonight, about why I've decided that Poch is my clear first choice.

Very solid post. I disagree slightly on point 6, he made some very poor decisions, some excellent decisions and a bunch of in between decisions. A lot like most managers. I used to agree with you, but after his transfer record was pointed out by someone earlier in the previous thread along with a few solid comments I kinda changed my mind.

7. Very good point if that checks out and one I haven't heard before. I do remember hearing endless stories about "the next big thing" while he was at Liverpool from their fans and rarely if ever did it materialize. Would love to hear some counter-arguments from the pro-Benitez side on this one if there are good counter arguments as it's a very interesting point.

Looking forward to your Poch post

 

[Kingdawson]

I can't believe how many of you actually want Benitez. That would be an unmitigated disaster. Several reasons why:




1. Benitez likes to spend a lot of money. He has done so everywhere. He signed 59 players in six seasons, an average of just under 10 per season. Even following the sale of Cavani last summer, he still had a big net spend with Napoli. When Hicks and Gillett tried to limit his spending, the team flopped and finished 7th when they had been expected to challenge for the title. And Benitez had no problem coming out blaming the owners, even while still Liverpool manager. Levy is not going to give him the kind of funds he'll want. It's not going to work.

2. He is outspoken and confrontational. Like Hicks and Gillett, he also publicly fell out with the Valencia board, and then with Massimo Moratti at Inter. Take a wild ****ing guess what his working relationship with Levy and Baldini would be like.

3. Poor league form. Traditionally, the fact that Benitez over rotates his squad and tactics means that there is a major lack of consistency throughout the season. Inter and Napoli were never realistically in the title race under him. Liverpool didn't even get out of the blocks in most of his six seasons (only one did he even get within 8 points of the eventual winners) , and Valencia are the only team he's ever won the league with, with 75 and 77 points. In his final season in Spain, Real Madrid lost 5 games in a row after selling Makelele and refusing to sign any defensive players, whereas Barcelona were going through a major rebuilding process, the year before they'd been in the bottom half as late as May, and then were in the bottom half mid-way again through the 03-04 season until Ronaldinho inspired them to a late title challenge. The Valencia side he inherited hadn't won the league in a while, but they weren't exactly complete nobodies - they'd reached the Champions League final in two successive seasons before his appointment and had star players like Aimar, Vicente, Baraja and Ayala in the ranks. But in La Liga's current climate, there's not a chance that Benitez' team would have finished any higher than 4th. Point is, he has never come out on top during a title challenge against in-form big clubs. Next season, there's a good chance we'll have at least five big clubs in good form, six if you also count Everton. A cup win is great, and Spurs have traditionally been a cup team, but those rely more on luck than anything else, and as we saw in 2008, winning a cup didn't stop Berbatov and Keane ****ing off.

4. Over-reliance on star players. Too often Liverpool were bailed out by a bit of magic from Gerrard or Torres. How would he cope this time if we miss out on CL football and the bigger European clubs come swooping for Eriksen and co?

5. Boring football. I know at times his teams have been good to watch. When Liverpool beat Real Madrid 4-0 for example. But generally, it was painful. I can't deal with that. I can't face watching another Benitez Vs Mourinho 0-0. I don't expect Spurs to be the best team in the land, but I do expect them to deliver some sort of entertainment if I am to spend £50 on a match ticket. Some of you may feel otherwise, but if the football is boring and results start to dip, the fans and Levy will turn on him, and it's inevitable that results will dip at some point. Liverpool fans tolerated this because they'd been equally boring under Houllier. None of them would swap him for Rodgers now.

6. Downright crazy transfer decisions. Xabi Alonso has been one of the finest deep lying playmakers of his generation. Benitez quite publically tried tapping up Gareth Barry, a vastly inferior player, which ****ed Alonso off to the extent that he asked to leave. He replaced him with Alberto Aquilani. He spent £20m on Robbie Keane and then sent him back to us for £12m only 6 months later. He signed a plethora of strikers, including Dirk Kuyt, Peter Crouch, Djibril Cisse, Craig Bellamy and Andrey Voronin, with Torres being the only decent goalscorer he managed to find in six years. Baldini's influence may negate this risk a little, but it's hardly a good thing when you've got such a poor track record of judging players that you sign.

7. Poor with young players. We've got a young squad with a few players coming through that will be having make or break seasons next year. With the exception of Agger, I can't really think of any young players (say, aged 23 or under) that Benitez has really developed and turned them into stars. Babel, N'Gog, El Zhar, Sinama-Pongolle.....all highly rated when they joined the club, all complete flops. Benitez is hardly the man to take our younger players up to the next level.

8. He's a ****ing ****. I've never liked Benitez. Arrogant with no charm. The way he tapped up Robbie Keane was so classless. The way he came out and said the Tottenham board were desperate to sell Jermain Defoe in the build-up to a game with them. The whole "facts" rant. He's a complete prick and I don't want him anywhere near Spurs.


In conclusion - Benitez COULD replicate the success he's had at other clubs with Spurs. But unless we gave him a **** load of money to spend, got rid of Baldini, convinced our fans to stop wanting good football, and took out two or three clubs above us in the league, it's not going to happen.


FDB or Pochettino for me. And I'll write tonight, about why I've decided that Poch is my clear first choice.

1) Liverpool were expected to challenge for the league the year they finished 7th? i don't think so. He could quite easily get 60m to spend on player sales alone...i'm sure he could do a lot with that.

2) I don't know if he fell out with anyone at Valencia but it's common knowledge Moratti is a ****.

3) You're just stating opinion rather than anything factual here.

4) This is simply untrue beyond belief. Were you an AVB fan btw?

5) A total myth that his teams play boring football.

6) I've explained this before...the Alonso thing made PERFECT sense at the time. He wanted a pure defensive midfielder in the starting 11 to free up Gerrard in a more attacking role in the final third. At the time Alonso was deep lying playmaker that had not showcased his defensive skills to the degree that Gareth Barry did. Of course now it's obvious Alonso can play that role but at the time he didn't trust him enough to give him as much defensive responsibility as he would Barry had he signed. Of those list of strikers....Crouch and Kuyt did well...Bellamy did a decent job and Cisse was ok. I don't get what that list is meant to prove.

7) Maybe...not sure tbh. Would have to research this further.

8) So?

 

[billyiddo]

interesting reading SHUIYA - would like to hear some counter arguments from those in favor of Benitez, especially Rossi

 

[Hootnow]

Imagine my excitement when I see the number of pages has almost doubled in a very short space of time. Maybe we've hired the new manager or at least there's been some big moves, a concrete step.

Nope, we're actually all getting very angry at each other for no reason (other than braineclipse, who ironically was one of the few not to get angry in any way whatsoever).

Which tbh I find a bit strange because I think there are clear advantages and disadvantages to all 3 candidates. Benitez would be my 1st choice but I don't think he is this sure thing when it comes to success that some people are trying to portray. And it is so so obvious that Benitez and Levy would have a rather rocky relationship, something which Benitez hasn't been shy on airing in public in the past.

I'm finding myself more and more behind team Sherwood tbh, at least he united the fans in almost universal hatred of him

 

[Baleforce]

and Ramos has left Dnipro

 

[Rossi22]

I can't believe how many of you actually want Benitez. That would be an unmitigated disaster. Several reasons why:




1. Benitez likes to spend a lot of money. He has done so everywhere. He signed 59 players in six seasons, an average of just under 10 per season. Even following the sale of Cavani last summer, he still had a big net spend with Napoli. When Hicks and Gillett tried to limit his spending, the team flopped and finished 7th when they had been expected to challenge for the title. And Benitez had no problem coming out blaming the owners, even while still Liverpool manager. Levy is not going to give him the kind of funds he'll want. It's not going to work.

2. He is outspoken and confrontational. Like Hicks and Gillett, he also publicly fell out with the Valencia board, and then with Massimo Moratti at Inter. Take a wild ****ing guess what his working relationship with Levy and Baldini would be like.

3. Poor league form. Traditionally, the fact that Benitez over rotates his squad and tactics means that there is a major lack of consistency throughout the season. Inter and Napoli were never realistically in the title race under him. Liverpool didn't even get out of the blocks in most of his six seasons (only one did he even get within 8 points of the eventual winners) , and Valencia are the only team he's ever won the league with, with 75 and 77 points. In his final season in Spain, Real Madrid lost 5 games in a row after selling Makelele and refusing to sign any defensive players, whereas Barcelona were going through a major rebuilding process, the year before they'd been in the bottom half as late as May, and then were in the bottom half mid-way again through the 03-04 season until Ronaldinho inspired them to a late title challenge. The Valencia side he inherited hadn't won the league in a while, but they weren't exactly complete nobodies - they'd reached the Champions League final in two successive seasons before his appointment and had star players like Aimar, Vicente, Baraja and Ayala in the ranks. But in La Liga's current climate, there's not a chance that Benitez' team would have finished any higher than 4th. Point is, he has never come out on top during a title challenge against in-form big clubs. Next season, there's a good chance we'll have at least five big clubs in good form, six if you also count Everton. A cup win is great, and Spurs have traditionally been a cup team, but those rely more on luck than anything else, and as we saw in 2008, winning a cup didn't stop Berbatov and Keane ****ing off.

4. Over-reliance on star players. Too often Liverpool were bailed out by a bit of magic from Gerrard or Torres. How would he cope this time if we miss out on CL football and the bigger European clubs come swooping for Eriksen and co?

5. Boring football. I know at times his teams have been good to watch. When Liverpool beat Real Madrid 4-0 for example. But generally, it was painful. I can't deal with that. I can't face watching another Benitez Vs Mourinho 0-0. I don't expect Spurs to be the best team in the land, but I do expect them to deliver some sort of entertainment if I am to spend £50 on a match ticket. Some of you may feel otherwise, but if the football is boring and results start to dip, the fans and Levy will turn on him, and it's inevitable that results will dip at some point. Liverpool fans tolerated this because they'd been equally boring under Houllier. None of them would swap him for Rodgers now.

6. Downright crazy transfer decisions. Xabi Alonso has been one of the finest deep lying playmakers of his generation. Benitez quite publically tried tapping up Gareth Barry, a vastly inferior player, which ****ed Alonso off to the extent that he asked to leave. He replaced him with Alberto Aquilani. He spent £20m on Robbie Keane and then sent him back to us for £12m only 6 months later. He signed a plethora of strikers, including Dirk Kuyt, Peter Crouch, Djibril Cisse, Craig Bellamy and Andrey Voronin, with Torres being the only decent goalscorer he managed to find in six years. Baldini's influence may negate this risk a little, but it's hardly a good thing when you've got such a poor track record of judging players that you sign.

7. Poor with young players. We've got a young squad with a few players coming through that will be having make or break seasons next year. With the exception of Agger, I can't really think of any young players (say, aged 23 or under) that Benitez has really developed and turned them into stars. Babel, N'Gog, El Zhar, Sinama-Pongolle.....all highly rated when they joined the club, all complete flops. Benitez is hardly the man to take our younger players up to the next level.

8. He's a ****ing ****. I've never liked Benitez. Arrogant with no charm. The way he tapped up Robbie Keane was so classless. The way he came out and said the Tottenham board were desperate to sell Jermain Defoe in the build-up to a game with them. The whole "facts" rant. He's a complete prick and I don't want him anywhere near Spurs.


In conclusion - Benitez COULD replicate the success he's had at other clubs with Spurs. But unless we gave him a **** load of money to spend, got rid of Baldini, convinced our fans to stop wanting good football, and took out two or three clubs above us in the league, it's not going to happen.


FDB or Pochettino for me. And I'll write tonight, about why I've decided that Poch is my clear first choice.

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