In Rafa I Trust on Derby Day

I really liked Rafa's interview earlier in the week when he talked about the lure of Real Madrid. Real Madrid are quite obviously very close to his heart. According to the interview they were offering him more money personally and more money for player transfers. Given the splurge over the summer I don't think anyone can doubt this.

So why stay? Why not leave our club and run back to his HOMELAND, the CLUB HE SUPPORTED AS A YOUNGSTER, with a BIGGER TRANSFER BUDGET and for MORE MONEY?

Well I think there are two reasons. The first is that the job isn't done yet. For anyone who didn't catch the excellent Gerrard interview in Four Four Two he said "He's (Rafa) a perfectionist: he's obsessed with perfection individually and as a team". In a perfectionist mind I believe leaving now would be hard, if not impossible - a failure. Secondly, and more importantly, he quite obviously has a genuine affection for our club. From day one he has surprised. Whether that's winning the champions league or celebrating in a pub with fans. He very quickly worked his way into the hearts of Liverpool fans, which is where he remains for most.

During the blame game posts (which I started because of our recent run of form) I made my feelings on Rafa very clear and I called for some 'peace time'. Now I realise that not all of my wishes will come true in relation to this but for today I would like to see everyone behind our club and behind Rafa. I realise that not everyone shares my thoughts about Rafa but no one should be in any doubt about his dedication to our club. No one should be in any doubt of his track record and

everyone should review the recent 'blip' against his overall record at Anfield. I'm not going to reel off the statistics here as you've probably seen them a million times already. If not, just go look at his record with our club, then sit down and look at the last ten results. Ask yourself honestly... is this in all likelihood a blip, a bad run of results exacerbated by injuries?

I'll be completing every tweet today with #ynwa and #irwt as a thank you to Rafa. He'll probably never know I was doing it. If we all do it he still may never know we're all doing it. But I don't care if he doesn't see, I don't care if no one sees it trending it's quite simply a thank you. I hope the power of Twitter may do the rest.

If you don't have twitter yet please go and get it, follow me @mcdonaldtaf and re-tweet my tweets and follow any other tweets with #ynwa and #irwt. I would also recommend @paul_tomkins, @lfctv, @robbohuyton and @empireofthekop as must have LFC follows.