At the end of a week when he has been the subject of everyone else’s derision, Rafael Benítez showed yesterday that he has at least acquired the ability to laugh at himself.
Displaying a previously unseen knack for self-parody, the Liverpool manager reprised his famous “facts” outburst from a year ago, but behind the smiles there was no escaping the one fact that matters most — Liverpool are a club in crisis.
Whereas 12 months ago this weekend Sir Alex Ferguson, the Manchester United manager, and football’s authorities were his target, this time Benítez made fun of himself. But his jovial mood did not last: the situation at Anfield has long been too serious for humour to prevail, and it was not long before a steely determination to guide Liverpool out of their predicament came to the fore.
“Before we start, some facts,” Benítez said with a smirk. “Facts: we are not playing well and we feel sorry for our fans. I have experience as a manager and we know things can change in football every week, so we have confidence that we will improve.”
The problem for Benítez is that the facts, at present, do him few favours. Early exits from the Champions League, Carling and FA Cups and a struggle to maintain their status in the top four of the Barclays Premier League have imperilled the Spaniard’s chances of extending his time at Liverpool to a seventh season.
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“Being a part of Europe’s elite is central to this club’s ethos,” reads a quote, attributed to Benítez, etched on a plinth with the European Cup that is on permanent display at the club’s Melwood training ground. Liverpool, though, are a long way from living up to that philosophy, Reading becoming on Wednesday the latest to humble them and increase the possibility of a fourth successive season without a trophy.
Rather than be cowed by the weight of history, Benítez attempted to use it to his advantage, citing the seven years that Liverpool went without a trophy, 1966-73, during the reign of Bill Shankly. He neglected to mention that by 1966 Shankly already had two league titles to his name, having rescued Liverpool from the backwaters of the second division. But what are facts if you cannot sometimes use them in your favour?
“The fans are very clever, they know that Bill Shankly, the most famous manager in the history of the club, went many years without winning,” Benítez said. “They know the club has good moments and bad moments. We are frustrated because we want to do well. Because last year was so good and we want to be closer. They know this: it is a bad moment, a bad season. They know the only way is to carry on and work harder. The most important thing I can do for my team now is to carry on working hard and try to improve things on the pitch now. As a manager you have bad moments and when you were under pressure in the past you were managing in a different way. Now I am really clear and if I lose my focus, we will not improve. The main thing I can do for my club, our fans, is be focused — very simple. Clearly I want to fight.”
The fact, to use that word again, that Benítez will be able to spend no more than he brings in from sales for the third successive window is only one symptom of the problems that continue to plague Liverpool.
Although unwilling to engage in another round of criticism of Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr, the club’s owners, Benítez did offer a further insight into his belief that Liverpool’s relative financial weakness is making it increasingly difficult to compete for the biggest prizes.
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“You can’t always have good seasons,” Benítez said. “You cannot be consistent at the top of the table with the situation that we have. Who has won the league in the last years? Who has won the Champions League?
“If you analyse who has won in the past, then that is the reality. It is also a reality that Liverpool have won four trophies, been to seven finals, got 82 points and 86 points in the league, the highest in the club’s history. We are progressing, but we are in a bad moment and we have to improve, but every club has problems. Sometimes the time they last is long or short. But we have to manage the situation.”
It is Benítez, more than anyone, who must manage the situation. That job begins today at the Britannia Stadium and typical of the campaign Liverpool are enduring they go there severely depleted in number with even Pepe Reina, the goalkeeper previously ever present in the league, doubtful because of injury.
Counting the cost
Despite the absence of Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard to injury, the Liverpool team who will run out at the Britannia Stadium will have cost almost four times more to assemble than their Stoke City opponents.
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Liverpool
D Cavalieri £3 million
P Degen free
J Carragher free
D Agger £5.8 million
E Insúa £1 million
D Kuyt £10 million
J Mascherano £18 million
Lucas Leiva £6 million
F Aur?lio free
A Aquilani £17 million
D Ngog £1.5 million
Total £62.3 million
Stoke City
T Sorensen free
R Huth £5 million
Abdoulaye Faye £2.25 million
R Shawcross £1 million
D Higginbotham £250,000
L Lawrence £500,000
R Delap free
D Whitehead £3 million
M Etherington £3.5 million
M Sidibe free
R Fuller £500,000
Total £16 million