Rafa's rapidly rising Red Revolution
Ejaz Khan
12 July 2007



As new faces gather in Merseyside, the phases of Rafael Benitez’s planning begin to take shape. But will Liverpool's new strengthened horse stay in the race till the end?

As the number of new recruits trickle into Anfield, it’s exciting times for the Anfield Faithful. Rafa Benitez finally gets his way and and is granted his kitty to strengthen his squad. His patience is rewarded with the capture of Fernando Torres, Yossi Benayoun and most likely Ryan Babel too. It is important to note that the “plan of action” continuously spoken about by Gillet and Hicks is beginning to be understood and its implementation shows that the Yankee duo trust in Rafa completely, and are following his strategy as incisively as he could have wished them to.


Phase one – Tying core players to the club - Completed

The likes of Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher, Xabi Alonso, Pepe Reina and Mohamed Sissoko have all secured new and improved long term contracts with the club, and will form the nucleus of the team for years to come. It must comforting to Benitez to have them commit their future’s to Liverpool and they will remain his key players regardless of new faces that are coming in on a now steadily pace.

Phase Two - Bringing Players in - Currently in Process

Having secured the Big name signing of Fernando Torres for a club record fee, most will agree with Steven Gerrard that it is undoubtedly Liverpool’s boldest sign of intent in decades. Not having someone to finish off the Reds smooth build –up play has been a major cause for concern at Anfield for many a season. Having found a replacement for Luis Garcia in Yossi Benayoun, and with the imminent arrival of promising 20 Year old Dutch forward Ryan Babel, Liverpool are taking strides in the right direction. Liverrpool fans have always been fans of Thierry Henry and soon boast “the next Thierry Henry” Babel in their starting lineup . There’s nothing Liverpool fans wouldn’t do to see the charismatic Quaresma don the Red of Liverpool! The talented winger has been linked with a big money move to Merseyside and would definitely be an instant kop favourite were he to sign for the Reds. Who knows,with the way things are going with Rafa in the Transfer market, he might well be doing stretch exercises with Gerrard and co at Melwood in the coming week(s)!


Phase Three – Build for the Future – Constantly developing...


This is an ambiguous phase, for good reason.

1) Building a stadium, with a bigger capacity, close to double the size of anfield’s capacity, and bigger than Old Trafford, seems to be in the pipeline, and it is now a realization that a bigger a crowd, a louder ambience, will bring: more motivation for the players, more feet in, and inevitably more money for sustainable development. Everyone’s happy! One can already contemplate a colossal cauldron of noise, and if the current Kop is anything to go by, imagine double the noise rocking the New Anfield to it’s core. The best fans in the world, finally being rewarded for their unabated loyalty. Good things come to those that wait, and Liverpool fans have been waiting a long time.

2) Building or filling up the talent pool. Players from all over the globe are being snapped up by Liverpool scouts and it’s plain to see that this is another phase of the Rafalution at Anfield as Benitez looks to the future. It is indeed a blessing that Rafael Benitez is at the helm at Liverpool, and he really has the best interest of the club at heart. He is set to break the Premiership duck for the Reds, maybe not in this coming season, but definitely in seasons ahead. It will be foolhardy to even dare insinuate a title push is on the cards, with the new players still to adjust to their new teammates, Manager, league, homes, lifestyle, etc. As new faces join the Reds, it’s the phases behind the scenes that are resulting in swift actions and changes before Liverpool mount their saddles for the upcoming campaign. Good on the board ,and congratulations to Rafa Benitez in getting what he has always wanted … a faster horse to race with…..

Ronaldo gets the perfect 10 as football's No.1 diver

http://www.sportingo.com/football/cristiano_ronaldo_gets_perfect_10/1001,3378Cristiano

Ejaz Khan

Diving diva Ronaldo earns a booking against Lille (Gettyimages.com)

After collecting the double player-of-the-year award, the Manchester United winger plunges in for another gong from a Sportingo writer.

The Scuba Awards – The Masters of the Dive

10) Didier Zokora – The Ivorian midfielder's sharp rise to stardom after a memorable World Cup is directly proportionate to the time he takes to hit the deck. Zokora seems to have mastered the art of being a little puppy disguised as a vicious terrier. I think he misunderstood when Martin Jol told his team “to get stuck in” but not in the mud, Zokora!

9) Nemanja Vidic – Full-back and tough are terms that usually go hand in hand. Vidic is a new breed of defence. Instead of leading from the back, this new species leads from the floor. He has an all-round array of skills; good in the air but excellent on the ground.

8) Andy Johnson – A lot of newspaper time has been spent on the Johnson diving saga, and rightly so. He would dive at the drop of coin, or wind from a defender 15 metres away. The worst part is he denies it all, but the camera doesn’t lie. Johnson must spend a lot of leisure time with an oxygen tank attached to his back, together with a pair of goggles. Maybe next to Everton's training facility is a diving pool especially designed for Johnson to nurture his natural talent.

7) Jermaine Pennant – The talented Liverpool winger gets into good positions and gets crosses in, but he seems to enjoy mat exercise and yoga a bit too much, and also seems to love the grass between his hair. Rafa’s team don’t play for free-kicks as a unit, but Pennant is on a mission of his own. Judging by league standings, it does now seem compulsory to have at least one good diver to get ahead. Thanks Jermaine, but no thanks, the Reds don’t need to dive.

6) Wayne Rooney – You would think a player with his skill and determination doesn’t need weak antics to propel his team forward. You would be wrong. Rooney is just as guilty as Cristiano Ronaldo of going to ground far too easily. One gets the impression that it's something United practise on the training field. It surely doesn’t suit his robust approach, nor does it endear him to the neutrals. C’mon Rooney, take it like a man, and play like one.

5) El Hadji Diouf – The infamous spit king seems to slip a lot on his own saliva, and while his butch antics and raw style of play may endear Bolton fans, it's his groundwork that he is most noted for. He spends so much time on the muddy turf, it's no wonder he is such a dirty player.

4) Frank Lampard – Good ol’ Frank never passes an opportunity to fall on his behind. But it's purely down to his lack of pace and vision that leads him to creep so low, well, to the ground. The strange thing is, he never goes to ground in his own half or when there isn’t a realistic chance to score from a set-play. Frankly, Frank, it just ain’t right. Stop hanging around with Didier Drogba and Arjen Robben' diving is contagious.

3) Arjen Robben – Can change the outcome of a game with one untouched grimace of that hittable face. He has a tendency to go to ground quickly. Rafa Benitez epitomised the feelings of most football lovers after Robben pulled off an Oscar-winning performance that saw Pepe Reina get sent off. You would have sworn he was paralysed looking at his painful expression. He miraculously got up from the throes of death and continued play as normal. We’re on to you, Arjen, and in future defenders will be looking forward to turning you into the boy who cried wolf.

2) Didier Drogba – The Chelsea striker would dive if a defender fa*ted close to him, surely claiming the velocity brought him down, such is his ambition for winning free kicks or penalties illegally. For such a deadly player, he surely falls like he is deceased.

1) Cristiano Ronaldo – Ah, the winker-dribbler-diver-player of the year. Seriously though, he deserves the award for Player of the Year. He broke the myth that one man doesn’t make a team by single-handedly, taking United to the top spot, using a wonderful assortment of brilliant ball skills, unbridled pace and diving ability that would make Olympic participants proud. He scores a perfect '10'. He's professional, says Sir Alex. Yes, a professional diver. Like his other two awards, he thouroughly deserves this one as well. Well done, Cristiano, you are the undisputed scuba king. There is no other diver like you in the Premiership.

Anyone else you would include on the list?

Money Talks

http://www.sportingo.com/fear_not_benitezs_patience_may/1001,3813

Fear not, Benitez's patience may give Liverpool the edge in the Big Four

It's a frustrating time for the Anfield faithful, but a little faith and a little patience will go a long way.

The La Liga season is now something of the past, and the Liverpool excuse pool has officially run dry, just as quickly as Gillet and Hicks’s pockets have mysteriously emptied, together with the promises of desperately needed funding for squad strengthening.

Optimistic Reds fans will be weary of the fact that somehow, with all the rich history and prestige, the Reds fail to attract the big names in world football. Fans have also to be realistic enough to accept that in football, money has replaced English as the universally accepted language, and, as the saying goes, money talks!

One wonders why it is a such an uphill battle to land a young star like Fernando Torres, whose Atletico captain's armband is emblazoned with “You’ll never walk alone” – seeing that Liverpool haven’t spent handsomely in the transfer market as yet. But with Torres, it’s a double edged sword. We all remember the last time a famed Spanish striker landed at Anfield! Some Spanish players find the transition to the English Premier League hard to tackle, but not as hard as the tackles they have to endure when playing against the likes of Kolo Toure or John Terry.

Fernando Morientes arrived with huge anticipation but simply could not maintain his goal scoring tempo , and limped out of Merseyside with little or nothing to show for his efforts. Rafa Benitez, as analytical as he is, will no doubt ponder the possibility of Torres’s adaptibility to the much faster and tougher aspects of the English game, much the opposite of the hair-stays-in-one-place-for-90-minutes features of La Liga.

Thierry Henry’s move to Barcelona could be a killer blow to Wenger and Co, but that’s what most said when Van Nistelrooy trotted out of Old Trafford. Manchester United are now Premiership champions, and Arsenal and Liverpool are once again playing catch-up, both on the field and off. With Arsene Wenger set to leave after his contract expires at the end of the season, Arsenal fans have reason to be worried. Their talisman,Thierry Henry, has helped carry a lot of the pressure on his shoulders, and it remains to be seen if Wenger can find a replacement close enough to fill the huge void left with his departure to the Nou Camp.

Rafa’s zen-like approach to his transfer debacle has done a lot to ease the fears of the Kop faithful. He teasingly stated recently that he has fielded numerous “interesting calls” and also insisted that there is no urgency yet. With Reds supporters worldwide pulling their hair out waiting for some big name signings, the man at the helm of it all
Is as calm as they come. And if there really was reason to panic, he would definitely be the first to feel the pressure!

Chelsea have been dollar thrifty in their efforts to strengthen their cavalry. Free transfer or bust, seems to be the message out of the Stamford Bridge boardroom to Jose Mourinho, and the likes of Claudio Pizzarro and his Bosman clan will once again reveal Mourinho’s nifty moves in the transfer market without Roman Abramovich’s blank cheque approval. But Chelsea could still emerge as title contenders this coming season.

It’s a topsy turvy time for the Reds, similar to that of Manchester United before the start of last season, and no-one would have expected last year at this that they would emerge 2007 League champions. The clouds are hovering, ready for the storm, but there is sunshine after every storm. Will it be a Red dawn? Time will tell, and Benitez has all the time in the world.

It all makes for spine-tingling anticipation for supporters of the Big Four in the silly season.

"Write your comments" encouragement

Can Rafa Benitez afford to wait much longer before moving into the transfer market?