What's in it for Rafa?

Andy, the man has lived in Liverpool for 18 years. Do you really think he doesn't get it? Of course he does.

I think your stick-it-up reasoning isn't far off.

It's this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6owEGMI4xM

Or this: https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/568330-why-because-fuck-you-that-s-why

And please don't expect anything more than Ancelotti Part II. As Danny O'Neill put it well on another thread, this is just a continuity strategy in action. Swap out one illustrious old coach for another (albeit less illustrious one). The football is likely to be very defensive, very tactical and not very exciting.

“This feels like a business decision, not the sort of appointment you make in the emotive world of football.

I fear Moshiri really doesn't get it. Fans want a manager that loves the team almost as much as they do.

Moyes did for most of his tenure, up until his head was turned by a posh bird from up the East Lancs.

Martinez genuinely seemed to love the club. I think he thought we were “phenomenal”… although he says that about a lot of things.

Koeman didn't give two shiny wotsits about Everton or the club's history. The mess we see today is a direct result of Ronald “Red Fucking Christmas Decorations” Koeman's appointment and the spending that followed. In fact Koeman's legacy should be used as a cautionary tale entitled ‘How to Fuck Up Your Club'.

Allardyce talked about being mates with Paul Bracewell and said he knew all about ‘the school of science' but then proceeded to trash the club's reputation by showing it zero respect by playing his usual brand of anti-football.

Silva kind of got the club but didn't get the time to settle in and turn it into a proper love affair. It will always be a case of what could have been about his relationship with the blues.

Ancelotti really seemed to get the club… or so we thought. Turns out that he just wanted a brief affair with a bit of rough from Liverpool and had the Italian gift of seduction.

So where does that leave Benitez?

Well he can never truly ‘love' the club, can he? It's an impossibility. Even if the improbable happened and he hit the ground running, secured a top 6 finish in his first season and then went on to take Everton to win a cup final or two, you'd still always know that it was just business. He'd achieved what he had for himself and his paymasters, not for the fans. It's probably a bit like having sex with your mail order bride. You'd enjoy the outcome but always know that she was just fulfilling her side of the contract.”

I would love to smack him in the mouth with the appropriately named RS39 and say, "how's that for a small club you fat little fucker ?"

Maybe he will grow on me

"For Rafa it's just the opportunity to carry on being a manager and close to home too after a nomadic period since leaving the RS."

Did you really think this through before you decided to go in to print on it? Of course, the everybody has his/her right to his/her opinion comes in to play. But, deep down analysed, do you think Benitez is that shallow?

He was never my preferred appointee but something in my gut says to me that this might work, as I wrote on another thread.

Everything about it seems counter intuitive. Even Billy the old kid doesn't like the choice because, like most of us fans he's a true blue, whatever else you think about him.

He's either a con-man or he has honestly convinced the hierarchy that he is the right man for the job at the moment in future history's page.

Frustrated or not by previous choice decisions by the Board, there is not one member of that board we could honestly state is "stupid". Moshiri is certainly no idiot and financially this can be witnessed by his choice of friends, one in particular.

Returning to Benitez, clearly he has large cahoonas (forgive my spelling please). He knows the game. Wants to win again. He's now sold his soul to Everton.

Only time will tell. At 73 yo and more than 65 of those years Everton through and through, I hope my gut feel is right.

He went for the jugular, because he'd been taking stick off us toffees, from day one, and he's definitely not the type of man, who takes things lying down.

That's how I saw it anyway, because that's how I see Benitez, a man with very thick skin, who doesn't appear to be scared of anything.

That said, I think of all the foreign managers, Benitez is one who understands Everton, Evertonians and the city better than just about all of them. I will have to keep referring to him by his surname for now. I'm not on first name terms just yet.

He has roots in the region, which he has maintained wherever he has gone. For many, he has unpalatable history with our neighbours. Of course he gets Everton, Evertonians and our great City of Liverpool. It's probably why he, and only he, knew what buttons to press and wind us up no end when he was at Mordor.

He get's us alright. Here's hoping he makes a unique place in Merseyside football history for us and him.

He just comes off as a deeply unpleasant man. If it was Rodgers or Klopp maybe I could some how cope but it's the same guy we used to sing "fat Spanish waiter" and "Rafa Benuathus" at. It just feels wrong in every way imaginable.

I'm trying to imagine him winning the Fa.cup this season and seeing him holding it surrounded by Everton players and it just feels so dirty to me. Maybe there is something wrong with me, I don't know but I just can't bring to think of him in charge in our final ever game at Goodison or the first game at any new stadium

He gets the fact that he is in the most difficult appointment of his life, he gets that his reputation is on the line, he gets that his life in the city will be unbearable if he fails and he gets that Evertonian's are watching him through a microscope waiting for him to make one bad move.

He's no fool...far from it.

We do have a habit of abbreviating most things by putting a "y" on the end of a shortened version, so I assumed Caldy was Calderstones!!

Proposition 1. Rafa is an arrogant kopite who has made his disdain for Everton and undying love for LFC clear and plain - the evidence being the mans own words

Proposition 2. Rafa is a good coach and really wants Everton gig

Hence it's a legitimate question to ask why he want this job. The answer is simple he is an avaricious person or greedy bastard (as Bill Shankly would have said). Stating he doesn't need the money is true but that doesn't mean he doesn't want even more. If he was motivated by other factors would he have walked away from Newcastle where he was bizarrely venerated with a six million yearly contract on the table to go to China? It might have been the 12 million annual contract.

Danny @ 13; quite right too, an easy mistake to make

Simple. He's a world-renowned football coach/manager who loves his work. And like many of us who love our work, he wants to keep doing it as long as he can, especially when there are plenty of 'new money' owners looking for world-renowned coaches/managers. And this is just the job for an 'obsessed, detail-driven professional', isn't it?

Simple.

What in it for us? I suspect that we have spoken to several managers/agents. I suspect that while it is a fantastic job as either a stepping stone, or, please God, for the next successful manager we get, any decent manager worth his salt would have proceeded with caution. A trigger-happy owner who intervenes over the head of the Director of Football, an imbalanced squad of slow, purposeless non-achievers on long contracts makes it less appealing.

If I was one of those 'up and coming' managers the world football experts keep telling me about, I'd be looking for a copper-bottomed, lucrative contract with a nice release clause and large compensation. Maybe, after his shocking and expensive recruitment mistakes, Moshiri fancies neither the up and coming, nor the superstar who will leave.

I'd argue Benitez is the conservative choice who is less likely to leave, less likely to mess up and more likely to be here till BMD, when he will be doing well enough to keep or be replaced by a manager who may find us more attractive after three stable years and a new stadium.

I don't know if it will work, but I'm guessing that's the rationale behind it.

That said I acknowledge the high risk nature of this particular appointment but, as other posters have said, maybe this one will come off. We are due a bit of luck, surely?

All in all, there wasn't a lot of choice on offer to us.

He has a short commute after living out of a suitcase for years in China, Newcastle, Milan, anyone who has travelled for a living will tell you it's not all it's cracked up to be no matter the size of the expense account.

Moaners won't worry him he had it at the back end of his Liverpool term and got hammered at Chelsea. The record of bullshit Carlo is nothing to overtake meaning he's here for at least a year with sleep ins, early nights and home cooking on tap.

Ask any mercenary they all say that is their dream.

He's landed himself a very well paid job near his home where, if he can get and keep us in the first eight of the league (I refuse to use the term 'Top 8' as it's fucking ridiculous), he will be deemed to have done his job by those that employ him.

If he does better, the supporters will be onside too. If he does worse, he either gets fired and paid off handsomely, or he completes his contract and gets paid handsomely.

All the above is what's in it for him. Nice work if you can get it.

Personal pride can be a very powerful motivator in anyone's life. I reckon at 61, Rafa feels he is far from finished and “an unexpected opportunity arose” for him to prove he isn't. He has seized it.

That is what I think is in it for him and I am hoping that it is also what's in it for us.

Honestly it's such an obvious call he could have his pick of mid-table clubs just a matter of waiting a few months till a job he fancied come up. But something far beyond money has to be in play to choose a club that have supporters who hate the very bones of you.

Him and his missus love the area their place on the Wirral is unquestionably their forever home. I imagine he has dreamed of setting up camp here knowing he's not getting a go at either of the Manc clubs or Liverpool.

At least it's a powerful motivator to make a good fist of it and remain as long as he can.

How about Rafa had the best CV when approached. We have tried up-and-coming managers, experienced managers. The club needs stability now. If Rafa can't get reasonable success meaning a semi final or top ten/eight in the league then we are in trouble.

Please listen to his interview a few days ago. He is Mr Football and probably watching all matches. He loves the challenge tactically to work and coach to improve players individually. I think it's a great appointment and, without his Liverpool affiliation, we would all be lauding what a great day for the club.

What's in it for Rafa? Football! If he can make Everton competitive home and away, both league and cup, that's fine by me!

Tony #6: "...a man with very thick skin, who doesn't appear to be scared of anything."

Anthony #17: "He believes he can deliver where others have failed and I would like to think that self belief, arrogance even is part of the motivation."

PT #18: "...this is just the job for an 'obsessed, detail-driven professional', isn't it?"

Covered it superbly, all of you.

Caldy have their own Calday Grange Grammar School which has the connection with Caldy Rugby Football Club. Birkenhead have their own ‘old boys' club.

Rafa's house is one of the most magnificent in the area, perched on a hill overlooking the Dee and North Wales.

I believe the police are still looking for suspects with regards that bedsheet that was left by Rafa's house last week!

It used to be said that if, from Liverpool, you can see the Welsh Hills then it is about to rain but, if you can't see the Welsh Hills, then it is raining already.

Benitez probably can't believe it, a top job a few miles from home – what's not to like?