Why Liverpool shouldn't bring back Rafa Benitez

Poor Roy Hodgson. Failure to convince Liverpool fans he is the right man to take the club forward to the point where they chant the name of the last man to take them to the title at games is bad enough. Having another popular predecessor leave his job and move into a house down the road is quite another. Roy must feel surrounded by the ghosts of Christmas past.

Ironically, that may be one thing he has in common with some Liverpool fans. The routine and tiresome accusations from rival fans that they live in the past, like most clichés, are not without foundation.

Reared on being Britain’s most successful club, Liverpool fans want and expect more of the same, even if most of them are much more depressingly realistic about that prospect than the caricature suggests. Certainly many fans have looked to the past as the way forward – first with the calls for Kenny Dalglish to return and now with the far-fetched campaign to ‘bring back Rafa’.

First, a reality check. It is not going to happen. The reasons why Benitez was fired are still there and so are some of the people who took or encouraged that course of action – notably some leading players. Throw in his outbursts against owners at three successive clubs and the owners’ criticism of his spending record and it is simply impossible to imagine them reappointing him now.

More interesting is the question of whether they should appoint him. He is certainly a better manager than Roy Hodgson, with a better track record and a real understanding of the club. Hodgson’s time should be nearly up for a club of Liverpool’s ambition and if he is to be replaced, a man who loves the club and has already delivered some success there might seem an obvious contender, his poor last season notwithstanding – you could put that down to the ongoing tensions and financial constraints under the previous owners. A poll on this site currently shows over two thirds of fans would welcome the appointment.

But there is a case against. For some Liverpool fans, Benitez can do no wrong. His clear love for the club and the city, the heroics of Istanbul, even the rant at Alex Ferguson make him a God-like figure in their eyes. These ‘Rafa-ultras’ regard him as a genius, the best manager in the business and probably more important than any player to the club.

They respond ferociously at times to any criticism of their man, former Liverpool hero John Aldridge was flamed so much after tweeting that he didn’t want him back that he left Twitter. While the admiration for Benitez is in some ways commendable, it can lead to a glossing over of some of his mistakes and failings while at the helm, including a shocking final season in which he had clearly lost the support of key players.

I’m a huge admirer of Benitez as a man and as a coach and there is no question that he was Liverpool’s best manager since Kenny Dalglish. He took the club forward in big steps, winning the Champions League in his first season with a relatively weak squad was an astonishing achievement. The development ebbed and flowed, but by 2009, he had taken the club to second in the table and they looked ready to make the final step and win the title.

Then Alonso was sold, Riera (an underestimated influence in bringing attacking width) fell out of favour and Benitez began to exploit the power vacuum at the heart of the club, removing key members of the backroom team and as a result alienating senior players. It would also be wrong to forget some of the perplexing substitutions and tactical changes that visibly alienated players last season.

His man management skills have never been the greatest, but in losing Alonso and clearly losing the full support of senior players, he seemed to reach a new nadir. Players did not want to play for him any longer and it showed.

Be careful what you wish for – the players then got Roy Hodgson, a nice guy but a far less able coach, with expectations that are not so much humble as defeatist. The expected buzz created by a new regime has not materialised in six months, the football is dire and the team lack both motivation and belief.

If this continues until the summer, have no doubt that the most stellar performers will be on their way. They have virtually said as much. But throwing Rafa into that mix is hardly going to smooth feathers. It would be divisive among players and fans and the media (who may not matter, but do tend to obsess Rafa) would do everything in their xenophobic power to derail the new regime. It wouldn’t be a fresh start, it’d be an admission that sacking Rafa was a mistake – a view that some in the dressing room do not share.

Rafa would also quickly clash with the new owners. They favour a transfer policy based on buying and bringing through young players – as favoured by Shanks and Paisley in years gone by and by Manchester United now. His record on bringing players through the ranks is not the best – he has tended to clash with boards primarily over availability of money to buy players.

The speedy turnover of players under Rafa would also jar with NESV – yes, he had to change things quickly and the club didn’t help as they might have, but it just isn’t the NESV way of doing things.

The reality that Rafa is not coming home to Liverpool – at least not as manager – should be obvious to all. What isn’t the equal truth is that it would be a retrograde step to appoint him. Liverpool need to look to the future – either to a young, ambitious manager to build a new dynasty or to a caretaker figure like Dalglish, until such a man can be found. Rafa was the answer in 2004, he is not the answer now.

A poor year for local football, but there's hope...

Earlier this week, the Singaporean football team, also known as the Lions, suffered a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Vietnam, ending their hopes of being crowned champions of South-East Asia for the third time.

In a year that has not been kind to Singapore football, all hope of festive cheer was pinned on Radojko Avramovic and his Lions to bring some joy to the fraternity, but there would be no merry end to 2010.

Three domestic titles in local football were all claimed by foreign teams who raided the S-League; the national side fumbled chance after chance to qualify for the Asian Cup finals; then the national under-23 team returned from last month's Guangzhou Asian Games with their tail between their legs - even before the opening ceremony; and S-League clubs are still in intensive care fighting a financial cancer, struggling to keep their heads above water.

Speaking to The Straits Times on Thursday, Football Association of Singapore (FAS) president Zainudin Nordin did not mask his displeasure after the country's first group stage exit in the tournament since 2002.

'The performance was below expectations and I'm very disappointed in the outcome,' said Singapore's top football man.

'But we have to move forward, and focus on the pipeline rather than the current team. Many of the players in the national team are in their 30s and are reaching the end of their careers. Our technical people will have to go back to the drawing board and blood new players.'

Thankfully, instead of complaining about what went wrong and who should coach the national squad, the Football Association of Singapore and S-League clubs are focusing on player development. Not many successful footballing nations have their front line led by a 40-year old and the fact that almost half of the starting line-up are not born and bred Singaporeans is a cause for concern.

Even as the inquest continues into Singapore's AFF Suzuki Cup fiasco, plans are already in motion to boost the quality of youngsters that will form the spine of future national teams.The FAS has revealed that it is in talks with Tottenham and Aston Villa to bring budding young Singaporeans to England next year for trials. Members of the Youth Olympic team have also received offers from top European teams such as Werder Bremen and I do hope that excuses such as "focusing on studies" or homesickness do not arise and prevent these players from living their dreams.

Although the road to being offered a professional contract will be long and hard, the exposure to training techniques and the professionalism of foreign leagues will be vital in the development in young talent. This tactic may take time to reap reward but what it can provide is a sustainable flow of talent to support what the potential of the national team.

Although the performance in the Suzuki Cup was dismal, coming extremely close to qualifying for the Asian Cup Finals and going further than any other local team in history in terms of World Cup Qualification do prove that the system set in place by Raddy Avramovic is slowly but surely producing results.

Yes, players like Aleksander Duric and John Wilkinson may be past their prime and should not play any further part in the national team set up but young ones like Shahril Ishak, Hasan Sunny and a fit Qiu Li definitely have what it takes to beat any team in the region and with better training and infrastructure, may even go on to become one of the top Asian teams.

So to all local football fans, don't lose faith in your national team or the S-League. This year was surely one of the worst the local football scene has ever faced but the only way it can go now is up. Let's do away with the harsh criticism and lets focus on the positives instead of the negatives.

The FAS and S-League need our support to be the driving force of their 5-year plan so lets get behind them and make football enjoyable again for us and the future of Singapore.

Where's the sense in sacking Chris Hughton?

Sunday's performance from the Newcastle United players, as in a few matches this season, was lacklustre at best. Fans who had battled through transport chaos to get to West Bromwich vented their frustration as they and their team froze at The Hawthorns.

But, even as the gloomy resignation to a poor defeat descended on those of us in the away end, a chant began to rise up from the Geordies behind the goal: "Chrissy Hughton's black and white army," they sang, over and over.

As Hughton held the Championship trophy aloft at St James' Park, the fans knew he had won it despite losing some very talented players the previous summer, despite spending a relatively small sum of money and despite nobody having even given him a chance of getting the job in the first place.

Chris Hughton has brought dignity, stability and a respectable Premier League placing to Newcastle United - so it should be no surprise that his reward from owner Mike Ashley is the sack.

Ashley's unsure touch on football matters has surfaced in the wayward decision-making of the past but, short of pleading with Kevin Keegan to return for a third term of office, few have been as unfathomable as the decision to remove Hughton less than eight months after the 51-year-old former Tottenham and Republic of Ireland defender took them back to the top tier.

And it has rightly been met with instant and widespread condemnation - most significantly from Newcastle supporters who know their former manager has been badly treated.

Ashley has not been pushed into this by growing pressure and unrest from fans. Newcastle's followers have been loyal and grateful to Hughton for restoring respect to their club and for the calm and measured manner in which he guided them back into the Premier League after only one season away.

Of course, the Magpies have had poor results this season, two of them coming in successive away games at Bolton and West Brom, the latter on Sunday presumably the final straw for Ashley and his fellow powerbrokers. It should also be remembered a creditable draw against Chelsea was sandwiched between these two results.

Newcastle are what they are - a newly promoted team - and Hughton was bound to experience bumps along the way. This is the way of things. Results can be mixed and heavy defeats come along occasionally but Ashley does not appear to have factored away wins at Everton and Arsenal into his calculations, or the hammerings handed out to Aston Villa and Sunderland at home.

The good news for Hughton is that he departs without a stain on his reputation and character while Ashley will no doubt face further accusations that he is out of touch with football's realities.

The farewell statement that accompanied Hughton out of the door at St James' Park was part-praise/part-insult as it read "an individual with more managerial experience is needed to take the club forward."

More managerial experience? From the club that asked legendary striker Alan Shearer to perform his first managerial task by trying to save them from relegation at the end of the 2008/09 campaign.

Take the club forward? Maybe something has been missed along the way but winning promotion from the Championship and putting Newcastle in mid-table in the Premier League sounds like decent advancement to most observers.

Hughton was getting his experience at Newcastle, although there was always the lingering suspicion that he was not quite high profile enough for those running the club. If you wanted headline grabbing quotes or flamboyant behaviour, Hughton was not your man. If you wanted basic decency and sound managerial common sense on a shoestring budget, then he was.

We should not patronise the former Tottenham defender and sympathise simply because this is unwarranted treatment of one of the game's nice guys. We should sympathise because he has lost a job he was doing perfectly well.

There is huge pressure on Ashley and his boardroom cohorts to prove that Alan Pardew is the right man and ease the mood of unrest his decision to cut off Hughton has created at St James' Park. And Ashley's track record will not inspire huge confidence.

Hughton, meanwhile, can only reflect on what a harsh and illogical profession football management can be, safe in the knowledge that he has more than enough credit in the bank to soon be receiving offers from elsewhere.

The fans do not crave a Messiah, they crave success. Under Hughton they looked like a football team. But that, apparently, is not on the board's agenda.