Is this the end of the Rafalution?

I don't often talk about football on this blog, but this time I feel the need to get something off my chest.

The way things are going, I will surprised if Rafa Benitez will be Liverpool manager come end of June 2008.

Over the last 3 and a 1/2 years, Rafa and his teams have really brought us, the fans, many highs and some lows. We have had a Champions League win and another final. Our highest points total in 20 years and it took a monumental effort from Chelsea and Man Utd to stop us being in the top three. We have won the FA Cup, the European Super Cup, a Charity Shield and been in the League Cup final. All in 3 seasons. And yet the man is subjected to the most ridiculous criticism.

Yes, for the last 6 or 7 matches in the Premiership we have not played great but we are unbeaten. We are 6 points behind Arsenal after the same amount of games and we are 3 behind Man Utd with a game in hand. Yet these teams have no criticism.

I really fear for the situation. The press in England, the bastards that they are, have made it an almost daily report to lambast Benitez. Here we have a manager who in the last 4 seasons has been in 2 Champions League finals and won the UEFA Cup - a better record than Ferguson, Mourinho and Wenger have! Ferguson has been in 1 final in his entire 20-odd years at Man Utd. And yet what is written and said about him is unbelievable. This crap they write about the rotation system is utter rubbish and the man's record is unreal. You dont win 2 Spanish League titles without being an excellent manager. The press don't like Benitez as he doesnt conform to the English ideologies of football in that it should be played at 100 miles per hour and you play 4-4-2 with the same 11 each week. Crap.Utter crap. The man is a brilliant manager and what he has brought to England is as good as, if not better than, Mourinho.

According to the papers this morning Rafa will be sacked soon for clashing with the owners and Mourinho will be installed as boss. I really hope this doesnt happen. The owners at Liverpool need to get their heads out of their arse and see what he is saying. If we dont tie done Mascherano and get some others in soon then their return on investment will be even less. If they appoint Mourinho they may as well appoint Alex Ferguson as assistant as their loathing amoung Liverpool fans is about the same and loads will vote with their feet.

There are players at Liverpool who are also there due to Rafa and it is going to cost lots to replace them - and they will have to replace them. Reina will leave, Alonso will leave, Agger will leave. We may see Torres going and other too. I think we are just starting to see the best of Rafa's Liverpool team now. The players now know how we wants and some of the young lads are looking great. Lucas looks some player and Babbel is gonna be great - players who joined the team for the manager and not because of who owns the team.

I really hope that I am wrong and Rafa is Liverpool boss for many years, but this is another item of something that is rapidly decreasing my interest in football.

What are the parents responsible for then?

While coming from the city centre earlier this evening, we had four young 'uns on the dart chatting about what they got up to last night. They were all around the 15 / 16 year age group. Last night they all smoked hash and a few of them had poppers on the way out. One of them was telling most of the people in the carriage (as he was talking loud enough) that Marissa wanted to give him 'head' and do him.

Another talked about rolling a few splifs today and sharing them with the others in the group and then was saying he spends about €25 each week on hash. Yup, €25.

When we were walking out of the station in Raheny (they were all off their heads) one of them spat in my wife's hair and another poked her in the back with an umbrella. Luckily for them Nicole didn't tell me about this until they had gone another direction and we were away from them.

If I had seen one of them doing that they, male or female, would have been pinned against a wall and shown in no uncertain terms not to even breath in our direction again. They really wouldn't want to get my temper going and little bastards like that get my blood boiling. And this is where we are really, really, killing our society. I would have been done for assault, probably, (and if one is going to be done for assault you better make it worthwhile) on that little fucker. What they done and the fact they were on, taking, and buying drugs (oh, and they were all drinking last night as well) would be irrelevant. People now-a-days have no manners especially children and teens. They get away with murder and parents do nothing to assist. They see it as the schools responsibility to not only educate, but instil discipline in THEIR kids. None of this education takes place at home and it should.

The problem is that schools cannot properly discipline kids as their discipling functions are removed. When I was at school the teachers used rulers to hit us on our hands. In my 8 years in primary school I'd say I got hit 3 times which is not a bad ratio. The fear of getting hit was sometimes more scary than the actual event. You knew if you got the ruler you did something to deserve it - and we did. It put a sense of discipline in us but also my parents put a lot of effort into manners and how to respect others (no smart comments). Now parents give their kids money and throw them on the streets (note how many hang around shops and mickey d's at all hours day and nights). And if a teacher so much as looks sideways at their child the trouble the teacher will be in is inconceivable. And this is wrong.

We will implode very soon as a society. Lots of the kids we are producing are rude, obnoxious, cheeky, place no value on anything and have no respect for any else. They don't know how to properly interact with people and because they are given money for nothing, they have no idea about work and have little or no work ethic - mummy and daddy will give me money.

When you listen to these radio talk-shows you hear people saying we need ASBO's, or better Policing, or more CCTV cameras, or teachers. No one mentions the parents responsibility in this
and surely as the people who have brought this person into this world, they are the people who should take most responsibility to improve what is happening.

More Striking - Getting Boring!

So, they are all at it now. Aer Lingus staff are going on strike as well. Jee wizz. I do wonder how these people would cope if they worked for a private company where your job is important. I mean, look at what happened in Shannon with the Aer Lingus route. Maybe call their bluff and let other airlines take the routes that they are so happy to let go idle.

I was also reading a very interesting letter in the Metro. A girl in Dublin was saying that she bought a ticket for Dublin bus in advance. Because of the strike now, every bus that goes past her place is full and so she has to taxi it. Should she get her money back? I feckin think so...and take it out of the unions or Dublin bus workers coffers.

Feckers the lot of them....they may make my list yet !

Unions - Do we really need them?

This whole bus dispute in Dublin I have to say is really annoying me. I think it is completely uncalled for and is yet again a sign of how many Irish hide behind unions when they can't be arsed working. Yes, I said can't be arsed.

Personally, I think Dublin bus are well within their rights to ask the drivers change in the city centre. If there was no precedent then fair enough but I have been on enough buses in Dublin and seen drivers change in the city centre - so what is so special about those from Harristown?

In order to succeed in any business you must be prepared to experience some level of discomfort at some stage in your company. Its life, get on with it. It happens us all. Unfortunately in Ireland when any company who has a union behind them tries to change something, some idiot decides to call a strike because it might cause them a little discomfort. Of course when they decide to do this its never them nor the union who suffer its ALWAYS the consumer. 60,000 people they reckon are affected in Dublin the last few days.

I wait for the day for another unofficial strike. When these happen I always hope that the idiot who called the strike gets sacked if its found it shouldnt be called. Why should the consumers always suffer yet this idiot keeps their job. So come on union folk do what you are really there for and protect people. If its unofficial and is deemed unwarranted I ask you to make an example of the person who called the strike. It might stop others.

Unions are a great idea. I'm not against them. What I am against are the people running them. These people seem to have a huge chip on their shoulder and just want to show every now and again that they have some power, and do everything they can to annoy as many people as they can. They never see the bigger picture.

The new bus routes are needed in Dublin. They need to be introduced. Dublin Bus have gone through the correct channels to get it ratified. They have deferred these new routes twice but these are needed now. What can't unions move with the times? The fella that was suspended for refusing to work the new routes was rightly suspended. If my company went through the right channels and had to make a change for the right reasons and I refused I'd be given two options - leave or be pushed. That's it. And if this strike ends with these drivers getting more money for the new routes that will be disgusting.