Mirror again
IF there was a defining moment that said it was time for Rafa Benitez to leave Liverpool, then it came at Birmingham in April.
In a game the Spanish coach’s side simply had to win to keep alive fast receding Champions League hopes, he replaced top scorer – some would say only scorer – Fernando Torres, with David Ngog, with almost half an hour remaining.
The look of sheer bewilderment on the face of Europe’s best striker was matched only by the shock that was etched all over the features of Reds skipper and talisman Steven Gerrard.
It was a moment that was captured by the tv cameras, and was the beginning of the end for Benitez, because in that split-second, it became Âpainfully obvious he had lost his senior players.
The talk today, as the manager’s Anfield tenure officially comes to an end, will be of the rift between Benitez and his board, in particular American owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett.
But it is lower down the structure at the club that you must look for the reasons behind his sacking. When it came to it, some of the biggest stars in world football had decided they could simply no longer play for their coach. So Liverpool had a tricky Âdecision to make.
Keep the manager who had steered them to two Champions League finals but risk losing three or four world class players.
Or make a move now to bring desperately needed stability to the playing side of the club, and allow the likes of Gerrard, Torres, Javier Mascherano and Jamie Carragher to head off the World Cup in the knowledge that the positive moves they had demanded were being Âimplemented.
In the end, it was a no contest.
The idea of selling Torres and Gerrard and giving Benitez £80million or more was Âuntenable, given his disasters in the transfer market in recent seasons.
His last three £20m signings, Robbie Keane, Alberto Aquilani and Glen Johnson were in no way successful, with the former two proving downright Âcatastrophes.
Benitez has never been a manager who has found easy relationships with players, and his style is simply not conducive to fostering loyalty and trust or longevity in his squad.
Guillem Balague, the Mirror’s very own Spanish correspondent knows Benitez well, and in these pages only months ago, even he – someone close to the Reds boss – said that the manager’s style was to constantly sell players on.
“Many are blaming Benitez’s personality for the team’s demise and I have always had the Âimpression that for his methods to succeed he must constantly recycle new blood through the squad, even replacing key players with new ones eager to respond to him,†he wrote here.
It is an astute observation. Benitez’s cold style has led to many criticisms, and his Âtreatment in particular of the popular Xabi Alonso and Sami Hyypia led to much unrest.
Many of the players believe that Alonso was forced out because of the events of the previous summer, when Benitez had openly tried to replace the midfielder with Gareth Barry. And many wanted Hyypia to be given a new deal, instead of being allowed to leave.
This season, he has fallen out at various times with Ryan Babel, Albert Riera and Yossi Benayoun, as well as Gerrard, Torres and Mascherano, and the atmosphere within the squad has been uneasy for some months.
There have also been massive reservations about the manager’s cautious nature and his Âunattractive style of football. Liverpool scored just 19 goals away from home in the Premier League last season – four of them against Burnley – and won just five matches.
It was too negative for Torres, who dreamed of support from wingers and a target man to take the load from him, and that led to further unrest.
That was communicated forcefully to the board, with many of the biggest stars making it clear they couldn’t see a future at Anfield if he was still in charge.
In total, in his six years at the club, he has signed almost 100 players, including some of the youth team players he signed for big money over the years.
Now Liverpool are hoping for a period of stability, as they set about looking for the new owners who can bring with them the funds to build a new stadium that is the key to the future of the club.
With Gerrard and Torres still on board, that will be a marginally easier prospect.
