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The Liverpool managing director Christian Purslow insisted last night that Rafael Benitez’s immediate future was safe, despite the club’s elimination from the Champions League at the group stage for the first time in the Spaniard’s five-year Anfield tenure.
Lyons’ defeat by Fiorentina condemned Liverpool to the Europa League, despite their own 1-0 win over Debrecen here. But Purslow said it had “no bearing whatsoever” on the Spaniard’s position. “Rafa signed a new five-year deal four months ago and is four months into a five-year journey,” he said. “You don’t deviate from long-term plans because of two late goals against Lyons.”
Benitez said that Liverpool’s exit was down to Lyons’ two late equalisers at Anfield and Stade Gerland rather than underlying weaknesses. “At least we did our job and won today,” he said. “If you analyse the games [against Lyons] – two late goals made a massive difference. We were not worse than the other teams in the games. Yes, we made mistakes in these games in the last minutes – our fault in the end. We’re really disappointed because we had chances in the games and we could have won all of them.
“Football isn’t just a sport. Nowadays it’s an industry,” says Besiktas fan Ozan Ilhan ahead of his side’s clash with Manchester United on Wednesday.
The smallest of Turkey’s “big three”, Besiktas are seen in their country as the halk takim, the people’s team.
The team’s fan base is traditionally more working-class and left-wing than those of rivals Galatasaray and Fenerbahce, and their supporters’ club, Carsi, takes this history to heart.
Formed by six teenagers in 1980, Carsi is now a thousands-strong organisation that, unusually, marries fanaticism for the team with political causes.
Ozan is a 24-year-old student who lives in the German city of Koblenz, and works in the city’s car industry.
He is one of the 1,000 or so Carsi members making the trip to Manchester.
“My wife cannot understand me,” he complains. “She says: ‘Why fly to Manchester for Besiktas? You can watch it at home on the television.’”
They are coming from all over Europe – 150 from Germany, 50 from Holland, 50 from London – for a match they probably won’t win and, even if they do, has no bearing on them qualifying for the next stage.
“Carsi is like a spirit,” says Devrim Borcek, another fan from Germany.
“Those living in Istanbul are close to Besiktas. I’m living 3000km away but I have to live the same as these guys.”
But this is more than an ordinary supporters’ club trip.
Carsi is a hive of activity, both at matches and away from the stadium.
It has a changing cast of members but, for the core, the group is central to their lives.
Together they take part in Labour Day marches, do charity work, produce placards for matches, and even protest against government nuclear policy – or just meet up to drink and talk about football.
Fans are introduced to ideas like anarchism and socialism that don’t get an airing in traditional media, let alone most football stadia.
By contrast, the fans they will encounter on Wednesday have been dubbed the “prawn sandwich brigade” for their corporate approach to supporting a team.
So how do Carsi members feel about Manchester United fans?
Ozan respects United’s history and success, if not their fans’ style of support.
“They are a good example of people who like the football industry, who like to go to the stadium, watch the match and go home,” he says.
“That’s not the culture of Besiktas. We have to scream whether we win or lose – all that matters is the atmosphere, the expectation that you are not only there but you are living it.
“I cannot imagine Besiktas like Manchester. It’s not possible and I don’t want it.”
But they do want to be successful. Although winners of the Turkish league last year, Besiktas are currently at the bottom of Champions League group B, yet to win a European match this season.
Those in charge need to decide whether triumph on the European stage can be achieved without diluting the club’s identity, in an age in which success increasingly depends on money.
The club’s efforts to boost revenue have seen Carsi lose out.
Ticket prices have increased year on year, making it harder for the traditional fanbase to attend.
Seats in Carsi’s section for last Saturday’s derby against Fenerbahce cost 250 Lira (£100) – more than all but the most expensive tickets at Old Trafford.
“The three big clubs in Turkey – Besiktas, Galatasaray, Fenerbahce – their presidents don’t want these fans in the stadium,” a Turkish journalist tells me.
“Like in England, they want rich fans.”
Where next for Carsi, then?
The globalisation of the game has brought the group opportunities and threats in equal measure.
Some members worry its 1980s collectivist ideology doesn’t resonate with younger fans in an era of multi-million pound transfers and instant success.
But televised games, the internet and cheap European flights have brought more people into the Carsi fold.
Widespread publicity means the movement has become a magnet for those disenchanted with “typical” football fans, or even Turkish society in general.
They are fighting for a vision of what it means to be a fan – an all-consuming relationship with the club that they believe is alien to most in English football.
And so to Old Trafford, the 76,000-capacity, all-seated cathedral for the modern game.
“It will be a hard match, I think,” says Ozan.
“Our chances aren’t good. But remember the match in 2003 against Chelsea, when nobody expected Besiktas to win. It was wonderful, so why not again?”
from: bbc
Liverpool managing director Christian Purslow has insisted manager Rafael Benitez’s position is safe, despite the club’s early Champions League exit.
Liverpool failed to make it past the group stages for the first time in six years, despite a 1-0 win over Debrecen.
But Purslow said Benitez would remain and added: “He is under no threat.
“I’m on the record as saying Rafa’s signed a new five-year contract – he’s four months into that contract so to discuss that is not appropriate.”
Liverpool’s slender hopes of qualifying for the knockout stages were dashed by Fiorentina’s 1-0 victory over Lyon.
Despite their own 1-0 win in Hungary, the Reds can finish no higher than third in Group E, behind Fiorentina and Lyon, with one round of matches still to go.
Purslow, 45, who took over many of the responsibilities of former Liverpool chief executive Rick Parry in June, sees Benitez’s long-term future at Anfield.
“You don’t deviate from long-term plans for people and the way to take the club to the next level because of two late goals against Lyon, and that’s what it boils down to,” he added.
Failure to progress from the group stages left Benitez ruing the late goals conceded against Lyon.
The Reds were beaten 2-1 by the French champions at Anfield before drawing 1-1 at the Stade Gerland.
“It was our own fault in the end, the late goals we have conceded along the way have cost us,” conceded Benitez.
“We have been so good in the last few years that maybe people think it is easy to qualify in all competitions.
“We have to be disappointed, we knew we had to win and we did that. You cannot change what happened in Florence but at least we did our job.”
Benitez played down the financial significance of his side’s failure to progress in the competition.
“You have a budget at the beginning of the season and it assumes that we have qualified for the group stages of the Champions League. We did this,” said the Spaniard.
“Two or three more games maybe, in terms of money, won’t make such a big difference.
“The main thing for us is to finish in the top four and to be in the Champions League group stages again next year.”
Liverpool’s win over Debrecen came courtesy of a fourth-minute strike from David Ngog.
But Peru international Juan Vargas scored the all-important goal for Fiorentina, scoring from the penalty spot after 29 minutes at the Stadio Artemio Franchi.
The Reds, Champions League winners in 2005, must now to turn their attentions to the Europa League.
“We’ll try to win that,” stated Liverpool skipper Steven Gerrard.
“The main prize has gone and to be playing in the Europa League is disappointing but we have to accept that, move on and try to win that competition.
“The only consolation for us now is if we go on and win the secondary one.”
First up, though, is a Premier League encounter with Merseyside rivals Everton at Goodison Park on Sunday.
“I have to be positive because you could see the players working so hard on a very difficult pitch,” said Benitez.
“In this situation I think more about the players, the staff and the fans. I am disappointed for everyone. Now we have new targets.
“We are in a very bad position because now we cannot win the Champions League again, so the next game has to be won.”
from:bbc
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