Or weep and gnash your teeth, if you prefer.

The Liverpool board have offered the FSW 3 million to pack his bags – mirror story here.

Sammy Lee is favourite to take over, with a dream-team of John Barnes / Jason McAteer being considered an outside bet.

that's a shame. We were planning to give him the key to our city.

Gutted of Manchester.

Sammy Lee? surely just on a temp basis?

a dream-team of John Barnes / Jason McAteer

that's funny

Peeermanent la. Need to get some of the old boot room values back into the club, know what I mean?

John Barnes 😀
Not for all the Mars Bars in Merseyside

Bit different to Sky Sports opinion, but only on who's taking over.

He would be daft to take £3M when he's entitled to £16M. He has done well with what he's had available.

Barnes' first half time talk

16 million is a nice pay-off though 😯

I honestly haven't clicked thepurist's link, but it's his rap from World in Motion isn't it? A fiver says it is…haven't clicked…yet

Why would he take 3 million when he is entitled to 16 million, I would take no less than 15 Million and I would not give a damn what anyone says. A contract is a contract simple!

Dammit Deadly, foiled again!

Entitled to £16m maybe, but if his bosses made sure they stayed just on the right side of a constructive dismissal charge and then gave him the most menial, humiliating and unpleasant duties to do, within his existing contract terms, then a smaller pay-off might all of a sudden start to look attractive.

For 16 mill' I'd clean the sh1tters

All seems a bit clumsy to me. Board have now indicated they don't want him but clearly don't want to sack him either, so are trying to get rid of him on the cheap. Nothing in it for Raffa to accept – especially as he has a long, lucrative contract in place. I expect him to sit it out and wait for the board to offer him a really good deal to walk or give in and sack him. Why do anything else?

For 16 mill' I'd clean the sh1tters

Really?

When you could be doing something you enjoyed instead?

Money isn't everything.

The board have sacked him, make no mistake about that. The Mirror is being a bit pre-emptive reporting him sacked as of right now today, but that is what the board's offer means. 3 million to please f_k off now is a vote of no-confidence, from them and the players, and it makes Benitez' position completely untenable. LOL at the 'sit it out' comments – he's not a senior administrator at the post office – if he wants to maintain any sort of value as a manager at the top level he'll go quickly and quietly.

There will be some to-ing and fro-ing on the amount of pay-off, bit of face-saving, we might even see the RS fans get off their collective aris and give us a wee demo. But Rafa is toast.

Official now. Mutual consent apparently. Club is well f**ked now.

isnt the special one looking for a new club?

You should bring in Joke-in-'ere!

Its not as far fetched as it sounds. Liverpool are in dissaray but the kudos in turning them back into a worldbeating team must be tempting!
If he did join there is a good chance that Gerrard and Torres would stay for at least another season!

Eh, eh. Calm down, calm down.

Alright La

the special one already has a project for the next couple of years in Madrid. After that, he will take over at MU when bacon face calls it a day.

rafa has been on borrowed time for ages. without the european win in his early days he would have been sacked off ages ago.

with liverpool in the financial trouble its in at the moment it's unlikely to be a BIG name that takes over.

Gerard, Torres and others will leave over the summer and it'll be mid table for the forseeable future until the club is bought by someone who wants it to succeed.

shame really, I'm no fan but I grew up with liverpool as a big team and its not pretty to watch their demise.

There's not many better managers available at the moment (only Guus Hiddink springs to mind), so they should stick with Rafa, then get rid of some of the dead wood (Ngog, Aquilani, etc) and buy some grafters/cover for Gerrard and Torres.

He won the Champions League in his first season (look how long it took Fergie to do that, and Mourhino couldn't do it at Chelsea) and finished top 3 in the Premiership 3 times, not to mention what he did before at Valencia. He's a quality manager, last season was just a blip.

So the whining scousers get their way. Ho-de-hum.

I really hope that whoever Benitez goes to ends up meeting Liverpool in the Champions League next season and gives them a right royal stuffing!

What?

They're not?

Oh, I see…

Coyote, lets say he goes to Inter Milan, they could drop out of the Champions League into the Europa Cup, be drawn against Liverpool and hump them off the park then.

Can't see jose getting the united gig with his terrible football, far more likely to see moyes, o'neill or a return for carlos.

*fingers crossed*

sou-ness!

erse

I'm not a liverpool supporter .. but I thought he was doing a good job in the mad world of footie management.
I wouldn't mind the 3 million pay off myself mind you.

They will really struggle to get a top notch coach.

Roy Hodgson

Gutted as a United fan I was an avid supporter of KRAP (Keep Rafa At Pool)
never mind theres bound to be someone soon to keep the "Its our year next year" brigade kidding themselves.
Oh and before the old line he won the European Cup , yes he did with Houliers team and changed it all after that.
He'll never walk alone with 3 million quid in his pocket lol

He won the Champions League in his first season (look how long it took Fergie to do that, and Mourhino couldn't do it at Chelsea) and finished top 3 in the Premiership 3 times, not to mention what he did before at Valencia. He's a quality manager, last season was just a blip.

I think the champions league was the blip not the league. Seems good at cup competitions dreadful in league and he has bought some truly rubbish players. Cant beleive how loyal pool fans stayed to him tbh and cannot bel;eive anyone wants him with his record here either.

get rid of some of the dead wood (Ngog, Aquilani, etc)

you mean all that dead wood that Benitez bought in after selling the half decent players we used to have
How much money did he waste on players that came in, where crap and left after a season
Name one Benitez signing (with exception of Torres) who lived up to the pre-signing hype

As a Liverpool supporter, I have a lot of time for Benitez. He actually fulfilled his brief (from the owners) to the letter this season – to slash the squad/wage bill. When the owners are more bothered about the bottom line than success on the pitch, and aren't prepared to make the necessary investments, what hope does a club have?

Look at some of the shenanigans over the past couple of years – being forced to buy Gary Barry against his wishes, whilst being denied funds to buy adequate midfield cover; having to sell Alonso to fund vital purchases at the back and additional strikers like Aquilani… I doubt there's another manager in the world that could have made a success out of that situation.

And looking around at who might be available, there's nobody I'd prefer to see running the team.

iain1775 – xabi alonso, pepe reina, javier mascherano, i could go on.

Don't forget Yossi Benayoun – how many goals? And for 5 million quid?

As an Evertonian, I'm saddened by the news that agent benitez has been withrawn before completing his mission of totaly screwing up their club.
Shame.

to be fair on rafa there does seem to be a lot of interfering and general hassles from the various owners, always gonna make it harder for players/ managers