Rafa justifies 'arrogance' and 'contempt'

• limpper

  17 Apr 09, 23:26

  

   

  Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson has launched a furious attack on Liverpool rival Rafa Benitez.

  The Liverpool chief has been in combative mood recently, on several occasions launching verbal volleys at Ferguson.

  And ahead of Sunday's FA Cup semi-final with Everton, Ferguson has hit back with a withering assessment of Benitez's conduct.

  First he lambasted the Spaniard for his description of Everton as a "small club" before rounding on him for the attitude he showed in dismissing Blackburn last weekend once Liverpool had scored their second goal at Anfield.

  "Everton are a big club, not a small one which Benitez arrogantly said," said Ferguson.

  "But arrogance is one thing. You cannot forgive contempt, which is what he showed (Blackburn manager) Sam Allardyce last weekend.

  "When Liverpool scored their second goal he signalled as if the game was finished. I do not think Sam deserved that.

  "Sam has worked so hard for the LMA (League Managers' Association) and he's had a weakened team. I just thought it showed contempt.

  "In my experience no Liverpool manager has ever done that. It was beyond the pale."

   

  this is the video that they are talking abt :

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVZBaf190H0

   

  i personally think, no signs of trying to yaya leh.

   

   

   

  Blackburn boss Allardyce blasts "disrespectful" Liverpool rival Benitez.

   

  Blackburn Rovers boss Sam Allardyce has attacked Liverpool rival Rafa Benitez over his behaviour last weekend.

  Allardyce has accused the Spaniard of being 'disrespectful' and 'humiliating' over gestures he made on the touchline after Fernando Torres had headed the home side into a two-goal lead before the interval.

  He told Sky Sports News: "It's not out of our system for two reasons. One is the disappointment at the way the team performed. I know we had a lot of injuries on the day, but I still felt that we should have gone there and done better than we did.

  "And two, is the unfortunate gestures from Rafa Benitez after the second goal. I wanted to clarify his gestures. I think you'll see them as pretty dismissive to me and to Blackburn Rovers' team as a whole.

  "I think they are disrespectful and quite humiliating.

  "I waited to have a word with Rafa Benitez in his room after the game but as usual, and unfortunately, he didn't turn up.

  "I was hugely disappointed by those gestures and having re-looked at them this week I think I'm right and I think everyone will see why I'm complaining."

  When asked if he felt Benitez was writing his side off, Allardyce replied: "That was the feeling by the gestures. It was an open arms and a cross-over of arms as if that was it.

  "The game is hard enough as it is without a fellow manager trying to do, what seemed to be, an undermining gesture."

• HiAy3Captain

  17 Apr 09, 23:28

  ALL HAIL SIR ALEX FERGUSON !

• 798

  17 Apr 09, 23:32

  this show faggotson is really scare of rafa. one moment say rafa keep stalking him n he is ignoring him.

  but the fact he is bothering wif it dat he has to use mind game.

• limpper

  17 Apr 09, 23:36

  i see nothing wrong with those "gestures" rafa made, nothing offensive or what so ever leh
  
  or sam over sensitive alr? lol

• HiAy3Captain

  17 Apr 09, 23:52

  o.O

• Agenda

  18 Apr 09, 00:36

  too old already

• Saltiga

  18 Apr 09, 01:08

  Originally posted by 798:

  this show faggotson is really scare of rafa. one moment say rafa keep stalking him n he is ignoring him.

  but the fact he is bothering wif it dat he has to use mind game.

  ya.. and you're back with all your shit yet again...

  whats that for??? trying to add post count kiddy???

   

• Saltiga

  18 Apr 09, 01:09

  the reason for SAF is to give boast to Everton and make them work hard for that game...mind again as usual...

• kopiosatu

  18 Apr 09, 02:08

  "rafa - "when i'm calm you say i show no emotion, when i'm jubilant you say i'm arrogant" - lol its a no win situation; you've got to love our tabloids"

  

• gigabyte14

  18 Apr 09, 02:13

  Originally posted by Saltiga:

  ya.. and you're back with all your shit yet again...

  whats that for??? trying to add post count kiddy???

   

  i see nothing wrong with that comment

  i also agree is mind games wat

• Ian_lim

  18 Apr 09, 02:57

  Seeing that gesture i have to say it's really controversial. Nonetheless i agree with some comments, when Rafa is calm, some say he is not encouraging his team. When he starts showing some action, it is deem as arrogance. I have this feeling if Rafa had simply raised his arm in support of that goal it would generate the same comment from Sir Alex.(or the tabloids)

  Liverpool's out of the champions league, the pressure is on. What better time to strike another blow than now.

  Nice one, Sir Willy Fox.

• youyayu

  18 Apr 09, 05:18

  lol

  and if both failed to lose tittle..

  i bet hiddick will come out of the box and say FUCK YA!

  u 2 idiots has been kpkbing about each other and i am busying collecting trophies

• Medicated Oil

  18 Apr 09, 11:44

  I hope Alex can review all the past videos taken on Ah Ben when Liverpool scored a goal.

  It is never Ah Ben's behaviour to react, smile, jump or dance when Liverpool scores a goal.

  He would talk to himself, scribbles lots of notes or shout at the players to tighten his defence.

  For this case, he must have seen something funny that he reacted.

  He is a football crazy and manic as he always find something he is not happy about.

  Jose is proud but not Ah Ben.

  He is just too boring to be a proud and arrogant fellow.

   

   

• zocoss

  18 Apr 09, 12:02

  Pure contempt: It's a set-up, says 'arrogant' Benitez as crafty Sir Alex stokes the fire
  

   

  

  Rafael: being set-up?

   

  Sir Alex Ferguson last night declared open war on Rafael Benitez with a bizarre and apparently premeditated attack on the Liverpool manager.

  Ferguson’s salvo came as his Manchester United team — for whom Wayne Rooney is a major doubt with a foot injury — prepare to take on Everton in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley tomorrow. The Scot lashed out at Benitez for calling Everton a small club and for a gesture the Liverpool coach allegedly made to Blackburn Rovers manager Sam Allardyce last weekend.

  Ferguson said: ‘There’s one thing — along with his arrogance that he showed — that you can’t forgive, and that is his contempt for Sam Allardyce when Liverpool scored their second goal. Did you see it? It was absolute contempt. He went like that (gestures with his arms) as if to say “game finished”. I don’t think Sam Allardyce deserved that.

   

   

   

  Act of war? Rafa Benitez crosses his hands after Fernando Torres scored Liverpool's second goal against Blackburn

   

  ‘To get that kind of contempt, I don’t think any other Liverpool manager would ever have done that. But he is beyond the pale. I think you should respect a manager. I don’t think you’d ever get me doing something like that. You have to have humility.

  ‘I don’t know what he does in his spare time but he’s certainly not using it in the right way. He has played himself into a powerful position at Liverpool. He wants control of all the transfers, why I don’t know, but that’s the last thing I’d want. Crikey.

  And irrespective of what Rafael Benitez says, Everton are a big club. He called them a small club, which points to his arrogance.’

  Asked yesterday if Allardyce had mentioned the gesture to him during the week, Ferguson claimed that he had seen it on Match of the Day.

  Benitez is understood to be baffled and amused by Ferguson’s latest rant. The Liverpool manager is adamant the gesture was a message to his players and not to Allardyce. Xabi Alonso had ignored Benitez’s instructions over the free-kick which led to a goal for Fernando Torres.

  Alonso whipped it in from the left, contrary to shouts from the bench, and when Torres headed home, Benitez grinned sheepishly and waved his arms as if to say: ‘No more advice from me — what do I know?’ The TV footage appears inconclusive, and Benitez’s gesture, delivered with a smile on his face, is ambiguous.

  There was no evidence to suggest it was even aimed at Allardyce. A source close to Benitez said: ‘Rafa has laughed off what is clearly a co-ordinated attack on him.’

  Interestingly, an hour or so before Ferguson’s comments, his friend Allardyce had also laid into Benitez about the incident.

  Allardyce said: ‘What he did was disrespectful and quite humiliating. He made a gesture that was pretty dismissive to me and Blackburn Rovers as a whole.

  ‘He opened out his arms and then waved them as if to say that was it.

  ‘It was a gesture that said to me you are finished, done. He didn’t do it directly at me but it was more or less in my direction. ‘I waited for a word with Rafa Benitez in his room afterwards but, as usual, he didn’t turn up.’

  Ferguson suggested he will field a slightly weakened team against Everton — and it may be weaker still if the results of yesterday’s scan on Rooney’s foot cause concern.

  However, the recently reunited defensive partnership of Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand is expected to stay together.
  

   

• limpper

  18 Apr 09, 13:09

  i believe rafa means no ill-intentions
  
  he's not a man of such

• omgukilledkenny

  18 Apr 09, 13:16

  Originally posted by zocoss:

   

   

   

  Benitez is understood to be baffled and amused by Ferguson’s latest rant. The Liverpool manager is adamant the gesture was a message to his players and not to Allardyce. Xabi Alonso had ignored Benitez’s instructions over the free-kick which led to a goal for Fernando Torres.

  Alonso whipped it in from the left, contrary to shouts from the bench, and when Torres headed home, Benitez grinned sheepishly and waved his arms as if to say: ‘No more advice from me — what do I know?’ The TV footage appears inconclusive, and Benitez’s gesture, delivered with a smile on his face, is ambiguous.

   

  Well, that explains it then.

• limpper

  18 Apr 09, 13:17

  i think is sam over sensitive alr

• HiAy3Captain

  18 Apr 09, 13:19

  o.O

• sg_forum

  18 Apr 09, 16:58

  Before this game, the press mentioned that he never had a reaction, never smile eventhough Liverpool scored 5...He just trying to change his cool image lah...ask Sam eat shit lah...and SAF, that scum Manure...add oil to fire...haizzz dunno wat to say lah...

• jgho83

  18 Apr 09, 22:56

  Although I support United, I dont agree with Fergie on this. If Rafa is arrogant, then what about The Special One?

   

  Who can forget the infamous celebration when Jose Mourinho's Porto won in Old Trafford?

   

  Rafa's hand gesture in the video is really nothing much... Fergie really like to start mind games with opponents he feel threatening to him.

   

• Master -_-

  18 Apr 09, 23:09

  i think he must do this first la 

   

• Saltiga

  18 Apr 09, 23:26

  Originally posted by gigabyte14:

  i see nothing wrong with that comment

  i also agree is mind games wat

  faggotson is whats wrong... you might not have been around long enough with his shit with other teams... other then i think Newcastle or some team he supported as well as his being of Mod in SGforums Liverpool's webby...

• Saltiga

  18 Apr 09, 23:32

  and BTW i'm not against anything in this thread nor am i interested in what Ben or SAF did or said like i've mentioned, at this period the pressure in building up and SAF is trying his very best to wind up Ben just like he did with Keegan or during mid season.. my post is just directed to that 798 or 879 or whatever his nick is, for calling ppl all sort of names.. just like what a 6-8years old kiddy will do...

• SomebodyInSG

  19 Apr 09, 04:21

  The TV footage appears inconclusive, and Benitez’s gesture, delivered with a smile on his face, is ambiguous.

  I agree with the above quote from Zocoss article, even viewing the video you can't know what it was he was thinking or intended with those hand actions.

  This whole animosity between the two of them is becoming such a farce.

  Was listening to bbc radio where they interviewed George Graham and he said something along the line of how it was silly as well.

  In this instance, Ferguson seems just like an old man ranting, to dig up Benitez's comments that were made a few years ago when Benitez had just come to England and probably still trying to improve his command of english.

   

• SomebodyInSG

  19 Apr 09, 04:33

  On a site note though, just want to comment that tactically I feel Benitez is the better manager.

  But one thing to note is Man U's team philosophy is to let players express themselves and take any chance they get. Liverpool's gameplay under Benitez though is more organised probably tactics are more specific.

  Ferguson though after all these years probably has many tricks up his sleeve to inspire his players to fight and give it their all, be it out of respect or out of fear.