When we gave you all some money via our Xmas Freebie Bet (released in August so that you might garner a suitable price on your investment) - see: http://footballisfixed.blogspot.com/2009/08/15-reasons-why-liverpool-fc-will-not.html - we opened with a quote from Scottish Squiggly Doogle Merchant, Andy Gray:
"For the first time in the last ten years, I think this is the best opportunity Liverpool have of winning it [the Premier League title]. I really mean that."
And it came to pass...
...not.
In the light of his gross incompetence, why does Rafa Benitez hold such a prominent position within the game?
As we said in the above post: "His team selection is ropey, his transfer policy is totally disastrous, his public pronouncements are counter-productive, his squad size is unmanageable, he is unable to judge a goalkeeper and he allows cliques to develop in his squad, even siding with one against the other.
As Robbie Keane pointedly said when joining Tottenham after Rafa With The Strange Satanic Beard had managed to lose £10.3 million on the striker in six months: "It is always good when you have got a manager you can understand."
£55,000 per day..."
It was fair dinkum to turn an askew glance to this vastly overrated manager when he was merely deconstructing Liverpool FC but now that it appears that he is to export his lack of expertise to Juventus his record needs to be placed in perspective.
Benitez won La Liga twice with Valencia.
That's it.
All the remainder of his 'achievements' are tarnished in some way.
Take the 2003/04 UEFA Cup victory against Marseille.
The match was rigged.
Watch the footage on YouTube of Mr Fabian Barthez and the sending off and the penalty that gave Valencia their lead on the stroke of Half Time if you fancy entertaining yourselves.
And all three of his 'triumphs' at Liverpool are similarly tainted and enhanced.
It was Rafa's poor tactics, a dressing room rebellion and Dida's interesting slant on professionalism that resulted in the Champions League victory in Istanbul.
The FA Cup Final victory against West Ham United was another fixed event that we have blogged about previously - we backed Liverpool to win the trophy but sold them on the Asian Handicaps over the ninety minutes.
And we were not the only ones to take such a position, I can assure you...
And we won't bore you again with the Real Liverpool performance of last season as opposed to ScudamoreWorld's inflated league elevation.
A bog standard manager in a dysfunctional hierarchy was always going to end in tears.
Particularly once Rafa restricted transfer targets solely to the city of Madrid!
And then along comes a PR campaign orchestrated by Rafa's agent Manuel Garcia Quilon.
La Repubblica has announced that Benitez has agreed to take over at Juventus in the summer.
Both Quilon and Benitez deny that any conversations have taken place.
Juve meanwhile have sacked Ciro Ferrara and appointed Alberto Zaccheroni until the end of the season.
"As a manager, you have to be proud when a big club, a top club in Europe, is interested in you and are watching you. Perhaps there has been too much talking, but you cannot stop speculation."
Without communication it is difficult to understand how Benitez knows of "the interest", but his latter point should be looked at most closely.
Benitez makes public pronouncements about believing in 'the facts'.
As Nietzsche said: "There can be no facts only interpretations" but there is also a gradation of (hyper)reality at play here.
Mr Benitez is awkwardly placed strategically.
His team are not up to the tasks necessary to deal with the financial quicksand in which the club finds itself. Recent disclosures suggest that £100 million is required just to survive the cash flow exposures.
The Real poverty of the club both financially and on the pitch will become increasingly apparent with the passage of the season.
A deal needed to be tied up while Benitez wasn't completely damaged product.
Benitez is tied to a contract worth £20 million and must not be seen to be breaking the terms of that agreement by openly soliciting third parties.
The 'fact' that Quilon and other agents are positioned to lubricate such areas of grey legality is one of the four reasons that football is fucked, and we address the Real impact of agents further below.
