"It could be Pellegrini, Benitez, Blanc, Heynckes or someone we know who is looking for a bench for the future. Unfortunately, I can't say due to UEFA's rules, because I am waiting for the club who has him under contract to give us permission to announce it." Dela being theatrical as usual. We all know its going to be Benitez.
hahahaha hes just backtracking because Platini is up his ass about him doing that... DeLa and theatrics go hand in hand
I'm being torn apart in the Chelsea Supporters Union of Ohio on Facebook. Thanks, Rafa. It's like I have AIDS.
Lol Daily Mail linked me with the interim Chelsea spot! Yeah Daily Mail means its not happening... Football-italia will publish it if someone talks it up in the transfers thread... And Ray Hudson will talk about any player chooch really wants whenever he covers a Napoli game... Lol Not sure if you watched the Napoli-Cagliari game on BeIN but chooch was talking about Sau for like 2 weeks straight and Ray Hudson talked about how Sau may end up at Napoli haha... Definitely swings by the BigSoccer boards
Tuttomercatoweb is a decent link... But a lot of it is speculation... Like anything in journalism if it gains traction its probably accurate as in like 3-4 stories
Two words Napoli fans will be hearing a lot of in the coming years (or maybe just months): "net spend." Rafa's main goal in coaching is not to play good soccer or win things. It is to assemble "his" roster and be celebrated for it. All he ever talks about is the players he wants to get rid of, and the players he wants that he can't have, and how all the criticism of the shit roster moves he makes is unwarranted. Rafa has the ego of Mourinho, but not the self-confidence. Like Mou, he cannot tolerate any thought except that he and he only is right, and yet he reeks of anxiety and affirmation-seeking. Mourinho dictates from on high and Rafa grovels from the floor. Needless to say, they are both tactical buffoons who play cowardly shit on a stick soccer. But while Mou is at least a genuine winner, Rafa is a complete fraud.
Liverpool fan here I’m totally biased but Rafa is an excellent coach as a 35yrold he gave me some of best days as a Liverpool fan without question. Two European cup finals, going to the Bernabeu the CampNou the SanSiro and winning. Here are two clips from the 08-09 season where we beat Real Madrid 4-0 at home where Cassilas was man of the match followed by beating United 4-1 at their place. He also got the best points total in the league we had for 20 years (86 points) where we fell just a bit short to a United team with Ronaldo, Tevez, Rooney and Berbatov who won the European cup that year also. He revamped our academy bringing in youth coaches from Barcelona and we are now seeing some benefits. His time ended poorly in the final season the club ravaged by internal fighting caused by American owners who were not even talking to each other going bankrupt and who were useless. Although to be fair Rafa is no shrinking violet and if he smells bullshit he often calls it which doesn’t help sometimes. He spent over a decade at Real in their academy system doing every job even assistant to DelBosque for a short while before starting his managerial career. Here is brief article about him mentioning his time at Real http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2009/feb/25/benitez-liverpool-real-madrid-champions-league. This is a man who has been involved at every level and he will take an interest in all levels of your club. I guess you know the Rafa from Inter who should have taken a break after he left Liverpool. He was paranoid and let himself down but wasn’t helped by a Morratii who had achieved all he could not forgetting Mourinho who was Mourinho. Just for the record Mourinho and Rafa met in four cup competitions in England with Rafa winning three including two European cup semis and that is where part of their rivalry comes from and also the dislike from some Chelsea fans. Even though the Chelsea fans dislike Rafa with a passion they would not want to face one of his teams in Europe that tells you something. It is hard to say he overachieved at Chelsea as they have good squad but a lot of neutrals and even their own fans seem to acknowledge he has worked well with some of their players and made them better. Read some statements form Luiz, their Spanish rb and Mata and they recogonise his abilities as a coach. Chelsea fans have been spoiled but most neutrals recognise the job he did in his short time under appalling conditions from the fans who never gave him a chance. I think you all know about his time at Valencia but here is a good short read of his Valencia team http://www.zonalmarking.net/2010/01/29/teams-of-the-decade-11-valencia-2001-04/ These comments from Ancelotti sum up Rafa’s time here Ancelotti knows all about Liverpool under Benitez having faced them in two Champions League finals, losing the first in 2005 after being 3-0 up at half time and gaining a measure of revenge two years later with a 2-1 victory in Athens. “Liverpool are the hardest team to play against in Europe,” said Ancelotti. “Benitez is a great coach. He has a well organised defence and the perfect counter-attack. To play against them is always dangerous. “Manchester United are stronger but they let you play. Liverpool don’t.” Overall Rafa suffers from not being as charismatic as some coaches he doesn't wear good suits or a scarf doesn't look like the average manager and is easy to have a go at him. The bottom line he is an excellent coach who if treated with respect will be loyal and really try and continue and build on the work that has been done over the last few years.
Actually, disgust from the Chelsea fans originated from Rafa's comments about their supporters some years ago. He only put out the fire he started fanning into flames during his time with CFC. He gets no respect for that. The team went from four points of first for league standing to flirting with a fifth placed finish, lost two cup semis, lost a Club World Cup final (which is just seriously inexcusable for ANY European champion), to winning a trophy that doesn't have ANY meaning until the 2015-16 season and a third place finish (which I admit is a vast improvement on last season's league form). He hasn't done a whole hell of a lot of anything since Liverpool. He's not impressive, in the bit. He's the manager though now, so I hope I'm wrong going forward but I just don't see him winning anything for Napoli.
Rafa gets my support because he's Napolis coach... I think after hearing (banging the drum here... Because I've repeated myself numerous times here) The Inter stuff where Walter was telling some Napoli players he wanted them to follow him to Inter, while he was still coach at Napoli... Makes me want Rafa to be extremely successful... I'm fairly dubious, but I think DeLaurentiis knows what he's doing, he talked to all these coaches and chose Rafa, so he saw something in Rafa... He wants to be involved in all levels of the club, something Walter straight up refused to do, so there's that. I think its going to be a new chapter no doubt, I'm skeptical like many of us are, but he gets my support and if he succeeds here, so does Napoli. Villa is complete dog shit but tactics are tactics and putting all those goals by a team running a 3 man back line probably won over a lot of people who watched from a neutral perspective. Considering half of Italy runs that formation and some are probably just as bad as Aston Villa, I'm looking forward to seeing if Rafa can continue that kind of approach to dealing with the 3 man back line, a lot of plaudits went his way for those tactics, it made me fear facing Chelsea in Europa League because of Mazzarris insistence on 3 man backline despite being detriment to team at times. But that's my 2 cents and some, thanks for the info... Good to hear both sides of the coin.
I DON'T CARE ABOUT RAFA RAFA DON'T CARE ABOUT ME BUT WE BOTH CARE ABOUT NAPOLI SO THAT'S GOOD ENOUGH FOR ME