At least one bookie thinks so:
William Hill has suspended betting on Liverpool manager Rafael Benítez leaving the club before the weekend. A spokesman for the bookmakers said they were told by a source that the deadline for the Spaniard to sign his new contract had passed and that he would therefore be gone by the weekend.
“There were too many calls for it to be just a rumour,” said the spokesman, but sources in Spain claimed that they did not believe the Liverpool manager would be leaving his position any time soon.
Oh wait, that’s two bookies. SkyBet isn’t taking any more action on it either.
Has any manager been given full control of transfers like he wants?
If they have, I’m guessing it would be someone like SAF who has justified that kind of control with success and the ability to find diamonds in the rough.
Georger, where’s the unrestrained joy?
I can’t imagine a set of circumstances where we’d be able to land Martin O’Neill in the summer.
Despite his general stubborness and blindness towards the Evil That Is Lucas Leiva, there are only a handful of managers worldwide that would be as good or better.
“…there are only a handful of managers worldwide that would be as good or better.”
I’m speaking of Rafa in that sentance.
I hear Avram Grant is available.
Georger, I’m pretty sure O’Neill’s got full control over transfers
Well shit even he is more qualified for that sort of demand, how many summers full of flops has he had?
Either Parry or Benitez needs to go, whichever one was in charge of Pennant, Bellamy, Gonzalez, Pellagrino, Paletta, Leto, Lucas, Dossena, Deggen, Itandje, Zenden.
That being said, firing him midseason would be dumb, and him walking out right now would be childish and speaks to his character.
Don’t think it happens.
Georger, the problem is he needed to build a squad, but had little money with which to do it. He has also shown a willingness to dump those guys that aren’t cutting it. Most managers aren’t willing to do that. Including some of those guys is quite harsh, too. Degen has been there for 8 months and came on a free. Leto and Lucas are still fairly young, with Leto being quite cheap. Lucas was a stud in the Brazilian league, I can see why Rafa would want to stick with him.
I just hope they don’t can him without someone lined up to replace him; that would only lead to disaster.
Bruce Arena would like to implement his 4-5-1 at Anfield.
I don’t think that money thing is true, there was a breakdown on here recently and since he took over he has spent either the second or third most in the league. He spends poorly.
When he came in, Cisse was the transfer record; and since then he has bought five players who cost more (Torres, Keane, Mascherano, Kuyt, Babel). He has also shattered the club record on defenders (Dossena … ugh).
@Andrew-
And Steve Sampson would like to bring his 3-6-1 as well.