We got an email today alerting us to a new website for those of you who need more ways to while away those working hours in a way that involves your beloved Reds. This one is described as a “fantasy football game with a twist”.
Fantasy Rafa is a site where you try and predict Rafa’s starting 11 for each game. The closer you are to getting it right the more points you get. It’s all for fun, and there’s no charge for registering.
It might sound an easy task, but as the site owners point out, “Last season Rafa changed his starting line up 99 times in a row, and with a host of new signings, he’s sure to do it all over again.”
Will Rafa want to save his bigger players for the Champions League qualifier that takes place against Toulouse in the midweek after the first league game, or will he want Villa to face those bigger-name players? Will Torres and Babel make Premiership debuts, or will Voronin be given his chance first?
The site is not affiliated with us in any way but looks a lot of fun, so why not give it a try?
that fantasy rafa thing is well hard! the midfield and attack could be anything!!
Since only Julie appears to have read the Evans article in the Times, here it is in full for all my fellow reds (and I agree with you, Julie, on this article being spot on to depict Thicks’s nauseating ‘divide and rule’ tactics, which is certainly not going to fool foxy rafa):
“Liverpool won’t get fooled again
Tony Evans
There are many things you can say about Tom Hicks, the man who owns half of Liverpool, but you can’t deny he’s clever. He bought – with George Gillett Jr – Anfield on the cheap and will make a huge profit when he eventually leaves.
Hicks has also taken the initiative in the propaganda war. After almost sacking Rafael Benitez in December, he has realised the strength of feeling among the fans and performed a remarkable U-turn on the manager. Almost as astute has been his targetting of Rick Parry, the chief executive.
Parry is not so popular among the fans – after all, he brokered the deal to Hicks and Gillett. But the disatisfaction with Parry runs deeper. The chief executive carried the can for the Athens ticket fiasco, when Liverpool fans were in uproar over the scanty percentage of the 17,000 ticket allocation that made its way to the suppporters. His refusal to ‘play the numbers game’ over where the tickets went alienated the support.
So when Hicks turned his ire on Parry, saying the chief executive had showed contempt for the fans, it muddied the waters. Even the Texan’s biggest opponents couldn’t help but agree. And now he wants to keep Rafa at the club for even longer than his present contract – who can argue with that? Classic divide and conquer tactics.
Yet Hicks’s attempt to woo his opponents is bound to fail. Like all propaganda, it is just words. The supporters know that the American has not got the money to sustain long-term ownership of the club. Words are cheap. Breaking ground on the new stadium in Stanley Park is expensive.
Liverpool supporters have been fooled once. It won’t work again.”