Fans are still behind Rafa as American dream turns sour

Published on Saturday 19 January 2008 19:13

HEARD the one about the English football institution, the Spanish manager, the American owners and the German living in California? While you are unlikely to find Ken Dodd or Lily Savage telling it, it has prompted sniggering among those for whom blue humour means Evertonian amusement over damaging divisions at Liverpool.

Three successive draws in the Premier League would not worry most clubs, yet Liverpool, with their constant flow of trophies during the reigns of Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley, Joe Fagan and Kenny Dalglish, are emphatically not "most clubs". And the unease currently enveloping Anfield is about more than scorelines and silverware. It is about the very soul of the club.

Andrew Sherlock, author of a play about Shankly as part of European Capital of Culture year, says the Scot was "the city's first great urban regenerator". Some may regard the claim as pretentious, but the great sage of Glenbuck shaped the modern club and made it integral to people's everyday existence in a way that remains relevant today.

Shankly transformed an under-achieving Second Division outfit into one of Europe's pre-eminent teams; and his genius saw that the simple phrase "This Is Anfield" fixed to a wall between the dressing rooms and the pitch, could put a spring in the step of Liverpool's players and doubt in the minds of visitors.

Tomorrow, when Martin O'Neill's Aston Villa run out, the signs of the times will be the banners raised in support of Rafael Benitez against Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr. Last week, following revelations that the owners lined up Jrgen Klinsmann to replace Benitez in November, a slogan hoisted at the 5-0 FA Cup defeat of Luton (Liverpool's first win of 2008 and only their fourth in ten matches) made it clear the transatlantic special relationship did not extend to The Kop. "Thanks Yanks," it read. "More Friendly Fire."

The eager anticipation surrounding the arrival of Hicks and Gillett has swiftly given way to antipathy, some of it unpleasantly anti-American. Only 11 months have passed since the pair, both owners of NHL ice hockey franchises, bought control from David Moores for 219m, breezing in with plans for a futuristic new 400m stadium and pledges to fund Liverpool's competitiveness with Manchester United and Chelsea.

Lately they have been scaling down their ambitions for the New Anfield and trying to refinance their borrowings. Yet it is their undermining of Benitez, who delivered the European Cup in near-miraculous circumstances in 2005, that has provided greater grounds for complaint. The former Valencia coach was not their appointment, and last November, with Liverpool labouring in the group phase of the Champions League, they secretly met Klinsmann.

Hicks now says that the Los Angeles-based former Germany coach – who has never managed any club although he has since agreed to take over at Bayern Munich at the end of the season – was an "insurance policy" in case Benitez defected to Real Madrid. The Texan adds that there were "communication issues" with the manager over this month's transfer window but insists they have been resolved.

Benitez steadfastly declines invitations to discuss the owners' alleged duplicity. However, when pressed to explain why Liverpool are no closer to a first league title since 1990, he states pointedly that Sir Alex Ferguson has a clutch of 20m players whereas he has just one, Fernando Torres. Supporters buy into his argument, even though Arsene Wenger has shown at Arsenal that it is possible to challenge the moneyed monoliths without spending heavily.

Disdain for "the Yanks" has seemingly caused the public to forget, or suspend, dissatisfaction with Benitez over his obsessive rotation of the squad. The players, who are known to regard him as a cold fish, have voiced frustration over the impasse. Sami Hyypia even suggested they were becoming "like Newcastle" and hinted that the performances had been affected.

Hicks now says it was all a misunderstanding. Certainly, if they really did not want "Rafa" in charge, they could have fired him by now. But where they were once greeted like honorary Scousers, their presence in the VIP seats tomorrow would be astonishing as it would risk creating a rancorous distraction. Moreover, amid reports of a rift between the Americans, Arab investment group Dubai International Capital still covets the club and is reportedly launching a 500m buyout bid, although Hicks in the past has "denied categorically" that one or both would sell.

All but out of the title race, Liverpool may be left looking to the Champions League to salvage their season. Failing that, there's always the FA Cup. In Saturday's fourth round, Benitez's men host part-timers Havant & Waterlooville. Liverpool last met such lowly opposition 49 years ago, when defeat by Worcester sparked a chain of events that led to a change of manager.

The new broom, incidentally, answered to the name of Shankly.