1. Having trouble logging in by clicking the link at the top right of the page? Click here to be taken to the log in page.
    Dismiss Notice

Celtic’s next permanent manager

Discussion in 'Celtic Chat' started by Jeremie Frimpong, Feb 26, 2019.

Discuss Celtic’s next permanent manager in the Celtic Chat area at TalkCeltic.net.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Mr. Slippyfist

    Joined:
    Dec 20, 2009
    Messages:
    5,213
    Likes Received:
    7,333
    I'm paraphrasing from memory here mate, but I saw an "article" from Gerrard not so long ago stating how he is able to call upon ex-managers for friendly advice etc, mentioned specifically who he got on well with : Houllier, Benitez and Klopp.

    *edit* found it. This is from 2018:

    Steven Gerrard has described Newcastle United manager Rafa Benitez as a “master” tactician - particularly when it comes to knock-out competitions.


    The Rangers manager won the Champions League at Liverpool in 2005 under Benitez’s tutelage, while the Reds also reached the European Cup final two years later.


    Despite having an unfancied squad, Benitez was able to regularly challenge for major honours in knock-out competitions - the Spaniard also won the FA Cup, UEFA Super Cup and Community Shield while at Anfield - and Gerrard believes that was down to the ex-Real Madrid manager’s meticulous attention to detail.


    Gerrard insists that it was Benitez who helped him develop into a world-class midfielder, with the ex-England international admitting that he “couldn’t be trusted fully positionally” before working under the Spaniard.


    And, having started his first European campaign as a manager successfully - Rangers have overcome Macedonian outfit Shkupi, Croatian club Osijek, and Slovenian side Maribor in two-legged ties so far, and they face Russia’s Ufa in the Europa League play-off round this week - Gerrard has revealed he has tried to utilise all of the tactical information he gained while working under Benitez between 2004 and 2010.


    “You certainly try to dig into experiences as a player and coaches you worked under,” Gerrard told The Herald.


    “Rafa was the master of defending away in Europe and being hard to play against. Then, using the power of Anfield in the home leg.


    “He helped me become a better player tactically. When Rafa got me, maybe I couldn’t be trusted fully positionally.


    “I maybe had too much energy and would lose my slot at an important time. I had too much enthusiasm to go forward and get goals.




    “It was maybe a bit of ego. But individual performances don’t always get you the right result in Europe. It is about the team, the structure, the organisation.


    “Rafa was a master at it and he improved that side of my game massively.”


    Now, about a week after I read that, the rumours started about Benitez, and that's when I saw this, 3 year prior to that pish above:


    Steven Gerrard: I was never close to Benitez and his 'facts' speech backfired badly
    Former Liverpool captain lifts the lid on his relationship with Spaniard

    • Share
    By
    James Pearce
    • 12:08, 13 SEP 2015
    Sport
    [​IMG]
    May 13 2006 Liverpool's Steven Gerrard and manager Rafael Benitez celebrate with the FA Cup trophy

    Steven Gerrard has lifted the lid on his “frosty” relationship with former Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez.


    The former Reds captain says in his new autobiography that tactically the Spaniard was the best manager he ever played for but he was never close to the current Real Madrid chief.



    “I don’t think Rafa Benitez liked me as a person,” Gerrard said.


    “I’m not sure why, but that’s the feeling I got from him. It probably started even before he spoke to me, when he met my mum.


    “Rafa was appointed as Liverpool’s manager in June 2004 — and I was playing for England in the Euros in Portugal that summer.


    “Even though he was being replaced by Rafa, Gerard Houllier still loved Liverpool and he remained very close to me. He and my mum flew out to Portugal to watch me play for England against Croatia — and they bumped into Rafa.


    “Gerard introduced Rafa to my mum. Rafa shook her hand, said hello and then immediately asked her a very blunt question: ‘Does Steven like money?’


    “Apart from a standard ‘Hello... good to meet you’ introduction, those were the first words Rafa said to my mum. I thought: ‘What kind of question is that?’


    I can pick up the phone and speak to all of my previous Liverpool managers. Except for Rafa. It’s a shame because we probably shared the biggest night of both our careers — the 2005 Champions League victory in Istanbul — and yet there is no bond between us.


    “I used to think he favoured our Spanish-speakers. He was an especially big fan of South American players, which is fine. It caused no problem between us.


    “At press conferences he might call other players by their first name but I was always ‘Gerrard’. It was the same in the dressing room. He would read out the team and use nicknames. But, for me, it would just be ‘Gerrard’.


    “It wouldn’t have made me play any better if he’d suddenly started calling me ‘Stevie’. I just wanted to win the next game and I knew Rafa could, usually, help us achieve another victory. He was the best tactical coach I worked with at Liverpool and England so I didn’t care what he called me.


    [​IMG]
    Steven Gerrard leaves the field after being sent off during against Everton in 2006

    “If we were to bump into each other tomorrow there would be no unpleasantness but maybe a day will come when we can actually have a deeper and friendlier conversation and reflect on everything we experienced at Liverpool.


    “Our working relationship was ultra-professional and his frostiness drove me to become a better player. I had a hunger to earn a compliment from him — but also a hunger to let him know he really needed me as a player. We were like fire and ice. Passion surged inside me, while Rafa was the strategic thinker.”


    In his book, which is being serialised in the Daily Mail, Gerrard was critical of Benitez’s infamous “facts” speech directed at Alex Ferguson back in January 2009 when Liverpool were competing for the title with Manchester United.


    “I went home from training that Friday lunchtime and switched on the TV,” he said.


    “Rafa sat down with his usual half-smile. It looked likely to be a normal press conference, but then he reached into his pocket for a piece of paper.


    “He spread it out on the table and began to read out one ‘fact’ after another. Rafa kept saying ‘fact... fact... fact...’ and I could not believe what I was hearing. I was grabbing the couch, digging my fingers into the arms, feeling embarrassed for him.


    “Rafa started by saying that maybe Manchester United ‘are nervous because we are at the top of the table’. I thought: ‘Uh oh, what’s happening here?’


    “It seemed so unlike Rafa to talk in such an emotional way. You could see the anger in him. ‘I want to talk about facts,’ Rafa said. ‘I want to be clear, I do not want to play mind games too early, although they seem to want to start. But I have seen some facts.’


    “Rafa went off on a ramble about how Manchester United and ‘Mr Ferguson’ had not been properly punished for various misdemeanours. He listed dates and incidents and concluded that ‘Mr Ferguson is the only manager in the league that cannot be punished for these things’.


    “He then railed against the fixture list and the timing of matches being skewed in United’s favour. Rafa was sounding muddled and bitter and paranoid. He was humiliating himself. It was a disaster. I couldn’t understand Rafa’s thinking in wanting to take on Ferguson, a master of mind games, when we were sitting so calmly on top of the table early into a new year.


    “When I met up with England all the Manchester United players told me Fergie was just laughing at Rafa, saying: ‘I’ve got him. I’ve got him.’


    “Rafa made a lot of decisions with himself in mind. He wanted power and control. I didn’t like it. Fighting with the board, other managers and the press wasn’t the Liverpool way.


    “Rafa had fallen out with the owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett. We were all starting to doubt them but Rafa talked to the press about problems with his new contract.


    “Rafa broke the focus of the team. We got asked about it all the time in the media: ‘What’s all that about? Why has he done that?’ We never found out because Rafa didn’t say a word to us. I think he felt awkward because he knew it backfired.”
     
    Random Review likes this.
  2. Dazzler86

    Joined:
    Jul 25, 2018
    Messages:
    299
    Likes Received:
    141
    Fav Celtic Player:
    Larsson
    Come up to Scotland and put this slippy * in his place rafa! Wee weasel. He shouldn't be writing that stuff in his book. After reading that if it's not to be rafa please let it be somebody like roy keane just so we can see him kick slippy's face in on the touchline on derby days!
     
  3. RockhardBoss

    Joined:
    May 31, 2011
    Messages:
    2,020
    Likes Received:
    437
    Location:
    Scotland
    I just hope this will all be sorted swiftly after the cup final.
    If we can't lure a top coach (AVB, Rafa, etc) and get him committed early, I want it given to Lennon so he can get to work asap.
     
  4. Twisty Rodgers out !!! Gold Member

    Joined:
    Jan 11, 2010
    Messages:
    31,591
    Likes Received:
    15,447
    Fav Celtic Player:
    Lubo
    Fav Celtic Song:
    Celtic Symphony
    Me neither.

    Think it will be oor Davie
     
  5. Mr Hoopy

    Joined:
    Jun 13, 2009
    Messages:
    843
    Likes Received:
    616
    Location:
    Fife
    Don't think so. Moyes never has and never will have any desire to manage Celtic because in my opinion he thinks he is too good for us
     
  6. Twisty Rodgers out !!! Gold Member

    Joined:
    Jan 11, 2010
    Messages:
    31,591
    Likes Received:
    15,447
    Fav Celtic Player:
    Lubo
    Fav Celtic Song:
    Celtic Symphony
    Me neither.

    Think it will be John Kennedy.
     
  7. Seán Mac D Gold Member Gold Member

    Joined:
    Jan 2, 2014
    Messages:
    21,826
    Likes Received:
    41,065
    I think we will find out on Monday.

    If it's not Monday then it will be some time either before or after.
     
  8. Marty McFly Whoa, this is heavy

    Joined:
    May 11, 2014
    Messages:
    39,691
    Likes Received:
    38,171
    Location:
    Hill Valley
    Fav Celtic Player:
    Broony
    Fav Celtic Song:
    Celtic Symphony
    At last! Some clarity :50:
     
    bagforlife, johnboy19 and Seán Mac D like this.
  9. Spring Time Gold Member Gold Member

    Joined:
    Mar 21, 2009
    Messages:
    26,757
    Likes Received:
    8,481
    You do realise it’s a compliment??
     
    jocksteinupper and JML67 like this.
  10. Cena Never Give Up Gold Member

    Joined:
    Mar 24, 2011
    Messages:
    29,567
    Likes Received:
    4,867
    Maybe Tuesday Wednesday perhaps
     
  11. The Prof Administrator Administrator

    Joined:
    Feb 28, 2010
    Messages:
    64,023
    Likes Received:
    42,900
    Location:
    Say Hello To My Little Friend ....
    Fav Celtic Player:
    Jinky
    I'm told by a very reliable source that the new manager will have a pulse. :50:
     
  12. MagnificentSeven Charly Musonda CSC

    Joined:
    Aug 13, 2017
    Messages:
    4,280
    Likes Received:
    12,008
    Location:
    Glasgow
    Just saw Rafa Benitez being mentioned there.

    Surely not?!
     
    Avatar Daizen likes this.
  13. Raoul Duke

    Joined:
    Jan 29, 2015
    Messages:
    7,005
    Likes Received:
    2,284
    Fav Celtic Player:
    Lubomir Moravcik
    Fav Celtic Song:
    Celtic Symphony
    More baseless rumours
     
    bagforlife and Seán Mac D like this.
  14. Twisty Rodgers out !!! Gold Member

    Joined:
    Jan 11, 2010
    Messages:
    31,591
    Likes Received:
    15,447
    Fav Celtic Player:
    Lubo
    Fav Celtic Song:
    Celtic Symphony

    Bit out the box, but it might just work.
     
    MagnificentSeven likes this.
  15. Seán Mac D Gold Member Gold Member

    Joined:
    Jan 2, 2014
    Messages:
    21,826
    Likes Received:
    41,065
    :party048:

    Delighted to hear it's not Moyes
     
  16. MagnificentSeven Charly Musonda CSC

    Joined:
    Aug 13, 2017
    Messages:
    4,280
    Likes Received:
    12,008
    Location:
    Glasgow
    SubliminalMessageCSC
     
    Random Review, Cena and Seán Mac D like this.
  17. Cena Never Give Up Gold Member

    Joined:
    Mar 24, 2011
    Messages:
    29,567
    Likes Received:
    4,867
    Bullshit
     
  18. The Prof Administrator Administrator

    Joined:
    Feb 28, 2010
    Messages:
    64,023
    Likes Received:
    42,900
    Location:
    Say Hello To My Little Friend ....
    Fav Celtic Player:
    Jinky

    Don't shoot the messenger mate, only going by what my wee pal's neighbours uncle was told by his aunties cousin's pals next door neighbour.

    It could be just made up *. :42:
     
    bagforlife and Cena like this.
  19. Gyp Rosetti Gold Member

    Joined:
    Apr 30, 2010
    Messages:
    52,893
    Likes Received:
    38,673
    Location:
    Govan
    Fav Celtic Player:
    Rogic
    Fav Celtic Song:
    Celtic symphony
    Aye but what year?
     
    Cena likes this.
  20. Gyp Rosetti Gold Member

    Joined:
    Apr 30, 2010
    Messages:
    52,893
    Likes Received:
    38,673
    Location:
    Govan
    Fav Celtic Player:
    Rogic
    Fav Celtic Song:
    Celtic symphony
    Absolutely!
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.