http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=94&si=1501282&issue_id=13234
requires registration, so I'll post the article here.
Benitez stays blissfully ignorant of English ways
by DION FANNING
WHEN the English football intelligentsia used to meet, their agonies revolved around one thing: How can we be dominant in Europe once again?
As is understandable in these emotive and exhausting debates, many solutions were put forward: improved technique, more patience, a turn away from the traditional English values or a return to national service; the word 'Ajax' becoming a sort of mystical incantation as the wise men sat around the table.
But now a team has appeared which fulfils their fantasies. Staggeringly successful in Europe, but yet they appear not to have been noticed by the intellectuals.
"We are the Champions, Champions of Europe," the Anfield crowd roared defiantly on Tuesday night and it must have come as a shock for a few of the men sitting in the press box.
Having spent so much of last season insisting Liverpool couldn't win the European Cup, they now refuse to acknowledge that they did.
Last week on Sky, Phil Thompson said Rafael Benitez needed time, adding "he's only been in the job 18 months." To which the interviewer replied, "a lot of managers don't get 18 months." A lot of managers, of course, don't win the European Cup in their first season.
Perhaps this dismissive attitude has been caused by the manner in which Liverpool won the final. It was miraculous, bizarre and spooky, but from it has grown an idea that Benitez's side somehow managed to win it on that one bewitched night. In fact, they beat the champions of England and of Italy over two legs on the way to the final and then, by extraordinary means and blessed with luck, beat the most successful European side of this generation. It wasn't a streaky cup run.
On Jimmy Hill's discussion show last weekend, one of the panellists remarked that he found it "touching" that Steven Gerrard had stayed at Anfield. He compared it to Matt Le Tissier's decision to stay at Southampton and fight relegation his entire career at which point he retired happy and a single-figure golfer.
Gerrard, in contrast, has won every honour in the game except the Premiership; not ideal, but a long way from the sentimental decision Le Tissier made to stay on the south coast of England where, if memory serves, he was conducting a vigorous affair with Marilyn from Home and Away.
Gerrard may learn something from Benitez, if the manager doesn't decide to sell him, but there are those who seem to suggest Benitez shouldn't be let near the money at all. His signings, they say, have been a disaster as they roll out the names of Antonio Nunez, Josemi, Morientes and Peter Crouch (they also tend to throw in Kewell and Cisse, before pointing out in passing that he didn't actually sign them).
INVARIABLY they fail to mention Xabi Alonso, the finest classical midfielder in Europe. It is the equivalent of describing Arsene Wenger's transfer record as a washout, citing Igor Stepanovs, Oleg Luzhny, Francis Jeffers, Tomas Danilevicius and Jermaine Pennant as evidence while ignoring Henry, Vieira, and the rest. Benitez has had one poor signing - Nunez - several debatable and one exceptional, Alonso.
Two of the duds - Morientes and Garcia - scored in midweek, so it's not exactly Frannie Jeffers we're talking about.
"Liverpool are blessed with the most loyal fans in the country and they are still living off the memories of winning the European Cup in May," Mark Lawrenson wrote in his Daily Mirror column last Saturday. May, eh? I'm staggered by their patience and it's amazing they haven't started hanging effigies of Benitez in Anfield by now.
Normally when this construction is used to commend supporters, there are two important components not found in Liverpool's story. One, the event should have happened 35 or 50 years ago. Six months is generally not regarded as a long time "to live off" a trophy.
Secondly, the trophy won needs to be a little disappointing in the first place, such as Newcastle's Fairs Cup in 1970 or Chelsea's Zenith Data haul from the '80s. A European Cup - the greatest of them all - won six months ago, lacks something in the 'loyal fans starved of success' department.
Since May, I suppose Liverpool have been a bit slack in picking up trophies. They're out of the Carling Cup, along with Chelsea, and they didn't even qualify for the Community Shield - further evidence that Benitez fails to understand the English game.
But if it's meaningless silverware you want, Liverpool aren't doing too badly. Maybe not as well as Gerard Houllier but, in August, Liverpool won the European Super Cup. Nobody cares, quite rightly, but in another example of his outstanding qualities, to my mind, Benitez hasn't mentioned it once.
During all the recent flak he could have thrown in a mention of the Super Cup to deflect a bit of attention and try to manufacture a headline. But the thing is he doesn't care. Certainly he doesn't care about the Super Cup (I've a feeling he may have forgotten about it entirely) and he is not bothered by the headlines, the ideas of the press or the screaming consensus.
Benitez might win the European Cup again, he will almost certainly win a Premiership with Liverpool. When he does, there will be only one thing left to say: why can't Liverpool transfer their domestic success to Europe?
