Return of Rafa? Not for me

Rafa’s dismissal from Inter Milan and his immediate return to his Wirral home has instigated a mass of speculation and calls for him to be reinstated as Liverpool manager.

My views on Rafa as Liverpool manager are well documented here. I loved the guy and fully supported him. I believed and still do that he is a truly talented football coach and his record as our manager stands up to scrutiny despite a disappointing last season – which by the way looks like being far better than the current season.

Rafa’s dismissal was a farce and a truly great mistake by the dickheads then running our football club.

That said, I’m not an advocate for going back.

To me, the advantages of reappointing Rafa are:
1) He knows the club, the fans and our expectations.
2) He knows most of the players and has a proven track record of getting the best out of them whilst playing a style of football that is, for the most part, enjoyable to watch.
3) We have seen him in the post so have a good idea of what to expect from him. Having seen his best seasons and his worst, we can reasonably expect to see seasons that fit somewhere between the two and possibly towards the top end if he is supported by the board.
4) He’s not Roy Hodgson.

However there are a number of reasons why I would be wary of his return.

Firstly, few managers return to a club and achieve success the second time round. Since the start of the Premiership we’ve seen Howard Kendall and Kevin Keegan attempt to recapture former glories at Everton and Newcastle respectively. Kendall narrowly escaped relegation on the final day of the season with the Toffees while Keegan quit (shock!) at the start of a season that saw the Toon slide out of the top flight. Arguably, you could say Harry Redknapp achieved success when returning to Portsmouth, first by keeping them up and then by winning the FA Cup. However, where are Pompey now? That’s right, Redknapp’s reckless spending left the club financially crippled to the extent that after he had jumped ship to Spurs, the South-coast club became the first in Premiership history to enter administration and dropped like a stone.

I’m not suggesting Rafa’s return would lead to consequences as dire as that but clearly the evidence suggests reinstating former managers is not a recipe for success.

Secondly, Rafa’s final season was accompanied by a firestorm of negativity. The media were gunning for him. The LMA, or Fergie and his mates, hated him. Ex-Liverpool players were slagging him off left, right and centre. The owners and board all wanted him out. A number of players, including Gerrard and Carragher wanted to see the back of him. Torres was also reported to be disillusioned with him. Whatever the percentages, the fans were split and a significant number were truly glad when he was shown the door.

This negativity wouldn’t simply dissipate if Rafa was to walk back into the club. Those who underappreciated him before would question the sanity of the decision. Gerrard and Carragher would have major issues with the reappointment. Torres may be off whatever but this could be problematic for him. The media, the LMA and the ex-players would have plenty to say about it. The fans who wanted him gone won’t suddenly do a U-turn. All that negativity would return and at the first bad result the cat calls would begin again.

Despite Hodgson doing a far worse job than Rafa ever did, we simply haven’t had that negativity emanating from external sources this season.

Obviously given the choice, I would take Rafa and all the sniping at him over Hodgson and Andy Gray telling us what a fantastic job he is or is going to do at Anfield despite the mounting evidence to the contrary. However, I believe there is a third option: appoint a different coach or the required quality who doesn’t bring with him all that baggage.

My third issue is as a returning manager, would Rafa face reasonable expectation in his first campaign? Inheriting a total mess of a club in 2004, he was afforded time and patience by the majority of supporters to put his own stamp on the club. Returning now, he would inherit a pretty big mess. I suspect that people would expect him to immediately resume where he left off as a minimum and not tolerate any deterioration from that level. But Rafa would be returning to find two of his players, Aquilani and Insua, out on loan, some of his youth prospects sold, Mascherano gone and a playing staff that includes Christian Poulsen, Paul Fucking Konchesky and a misfiring Joe Cole. He would also inherit a team that now defends set pieces with man-marking and a goalkeeper and back four who have been trained to hoof the ball up-field at every given opportunity. Rafa would need time to sort out that mess but would he be afforded it? Would people blame his predecessor’s mistakes for every bad result as they did for Hodgson? I doubt it.

My fourth issue is this: Rafa didn’t get sacked from the San Siro for footballing reasons. Indeed, he had just won the World Club Cup with them. He was sacked for what he said in the press conference after winning that trophy. To the world’s media, he criticised the club’s owner. That everything he said was valid is irrelevant. You cannot slag off your employer in such a public fashion and expect to retain your job. Moratti has ridden the crest of a wave in recent years, profiting from the punishments meted out to Inter’s main rivals for match fixing by being handed a number of unchallenged Serie A titles and last season winning the treble with Mourinho at the helm. His stock among Inter fans has never been higher so to suddenly have his name dragged through the mud by an employee was simply unacceptable. In the middle of an injury crisis-induced slump, Rafa’s position was far from secure and it was either a foolish miscalculation or a deliberate attempt to be dismissed by the Spaniard.

Ultimately, my concern is that Rafa’s track record shows he publically fell out with and criticised his employers at Valencia, Liverpool and Inter Milan. Whatever the justifications in each case, it paints a picture of a man who is not ultimately a team player. If the aims of the club are not aligned to him own or if he feels he is being criticised for things outside of his control, he is quick to set the record straight publically. Why on earth would our new owners consider appointing a man like that?

As a football coach, I think Rafa is a genius. As a man, he has some serious flaws that ultimately compromise what he is able to achieve as a football coach.

Liverpool FC needs a coach who will work in harmony with the people now running the club. That doesn’t mean being a ‘yes’ man but it does mean engaging in rational debate and negotiation behind closed doors and not engaging in public bouts of insubordination. Liverpool FC needs a coach who will unite the club’s supporters and ex-players in the media. We need a coach we can all believe in and who has the right forward-thinking approach and tactical expertise to validate that belief.

Who? I’ve heard the usual names banded about (Hiddink, Mourinho, Rijkard, etc.) as well as some up and coming names like Porto’s Villa Boas. I don’t need to put names forward. No one is going to consult me during the recruitment process. In many ways, I’d prefer someone up and coming whom I haven’t necessarily heard of. After all, I’d never heard of Arsene Wenger before he turfed up at Arsenal, or Rafael Benitez before his Valencia team wiped the floor with us in 2002, or Jose Mourinho before he did that ridiculous touch line celebration when his Porto team knocked Man Ure out of the Champions League.

Perhaps Villa Boas fits the profile best or perhaps someone whose name I have yet to hear.

If Rafa returned, he would have my full support but I don’t believe it is a possibility and nor do I think it would be wise.