Ton of trouble: Benitez has brought in close to 100
players in his five-and-a-half years at Anfield
The now infamous email Tom Hicks Jnr sent to a
disgruntled Liverpool fan last week is starting to look like some
kind of exit strategy as well as an indecent proposal. A win-win
tactic that was going to ease his pain, whatever the response from
the recipient.
The supporter reacted the way one might expect when receiving
such a shameless invitation, outing the Anfield part-owner's son
and so ensuring that he was quickly out of the club.
But Hicks might just have seen the writing on the wall,
might just have realised that things were only going to get worse
rather than better. Reading in an FA Cup replay?
The days of nipping down The Sandford for a few pints were most
definitely going to be numbered after his dad's team had lost to
the visitors on Wednesday night.
Rafa Benitez is not the same animal, however. He's as stubborn
as a mule, a Texan like Hicks would no doubt say, and he has no
intention of making it easy for his employers, and a good deal
cheaper, by quitting.
'I will fight until the end,' said the manager last week, even
if the end appeared to be a good deal further away than it does
now. But Benitez has the protection of a lucrative five-year
contract and an unbreakable confidence in his own ability, drawn,
as you might expect, from the success he has achieved in the
past.
He conquered the Spanish duopoly of Real Madrid and Barcelona
when he guided Valencia to two La Liga titles. He guided Liverpool
to Champions League glory in his first season at Anfield. Not to
mention the UEFA Cup he won while in Spain, the FA Cup he won here
and a second Champions League final appearance.
It was only a year ago that his team were top of the Barclays
Premier League and he probably reminds himself of that before he
goes to bed each night.
He does not think he's bought badly, even if a lack of quality
in a squad he has spent more than £250million assembling is a
principal reason why it has been such a disastrous season.
For all the good players he has recruited, and in
Fernando Torres, Pepe Reina and Xabi Alonso he has bought some
gems, he has signed up far too much rubbish.
And before he starts listing the money raised by the sale of
certain players, the net spend is still somewhere approaching £120m
and that is more than Manchester United's.
If you include some of the kids who were sent straight to the
academy, Benitez has brought in close to 100 players in the
five-and-a-half years he has been on Merseyside. Almost 100
players, but not enough decent ones to cope now that Torres and
Steven Gerrard, indeed Yossi Benayoun, are back in the treatment
room.
Things, as Hicks Jnr would seem to have anticipated, are only
going to get worse when Champions League qualification now remains
the only serious objective. Can they climb from seventh in the
Barclays Premier League table, having already suffered seven
defeats, and secure a place in the top four when the team is so
lacking in confidence and the competition from teams like
Manchester City, Tottenham and Aston Villa is so intense? At this
moment the answer would appear to be no.
In the absence of Torres and Gerrard more defeats are likely
because look what's coming up next. First, it is Stoke away, then
Tottenham at home and, after meetings with Wolves and Bolton, they
then take on Everton, Arsenal and big-spending City.
Alberto Aquilani? Against Reading he looked like a player with
plenty of style but no substance. So what are Liverpool to do? Push
the button now or soldier on in the knowledge that a desperate
situation probably won't improve, and that, for all Benitez's
strength of mind, the mindset of his team is all wrong? Even the
fans who have been so remarkably loyal to their beloved Rafa are
starting to turn.
There is a solution in the form of Guus Hiddink. His romance
with Russia is over and an opportunity to return to the Premier
League is something he would take once he has cleared it with Roman
Abramovich, and the fine job he did at Stamford Bridge would
suggest that he is perfect for the role.
Fans who have been so remarkably loyal to their
beloved Rafa are starting to turn.
Not even the expense of firing Benitez and his staff
should be too much of a consideration when you begin to weigh it up
against the cost of missing every target they set themselves at the
start of the season. Bringing in Hiddink now actually makes an
awful lot of sense.
Yesterday, however, the message from the Anfield hierarchy
remained much the same as it has been for the last three
months.
It was delivered with less confidence - they are hurting as much
as everyone else at a time when they continue to stress the need
for stability during their search for new investment - but the
intention at this moment is to stand by their man in the vain hope
that he can revive his team. If he does, and Liverpool somehow end
the season ahead of City, Tottenham and Villa, then it will go
close to equalling anything Benitez has achieved since arriving in
England.
This, after all, is half-time in Istanbul. A time when nobody is
giving Liverpool chance. A time when Benitez looks as bereft of
ideas as his players. In Istanbul, Liverpool somehow managed to
bounce back but on this occasion it seems even more unlikely.
Benitez is too stubborn to admit the problem is with him but he
looked like a broken man when he gave his post-match press
conference on Wednesday night and his team looked broken, too.
So much so that, for all their desire to resist it, a less
indecent proposal to Hiddink might not be too far away.
