Ciggy wrote:By David Maddox
It is fashionable at the moment to use the word 'fact' when denigrating Rafael Benitez and all things Liverpool.
So rather than repeat the lame joke doing the rounds about the fact behind the teams they have lost to, I thought I'd try to offer a little bit of perspective to all this ridiculous, ill-informed knee-jerk nonsense currently being spouted about the manager's position, by presenting a fact of my own.
Here is a real fact for you.
In their 117 year history, Liverpool have sacked precisely no managers while a season is underway. Let me repeat that figure. None. Zilch. Zero. Nada. In fact, during all that time, Liverpool have actually only ever sacked two managers, Gerard Houllier in 2004, and before that Don Welsh in 1956, and both at the end of the campaign.
So, when you hear the latest 'expert opinion' that Benitez will be sacked if Liverpool go out of the Champions League in two weeks, or that he has until Christmas to turn things around or he's out of a job, just pause and think of that fact for a moment.
They have never been, nor ever will be, a sacking club. And they will never sack a manager during a league campaign, no matter how miserable things become, nor how loud the calls are for the axe to be sharpened by those so-called experts.
I have to admit, I have come to despair about some elements of my profession in recent weeks, because they don't seem to even know how to spell perspective, never mind use it.
When they talk about Benitez being replaced, by Kenny Dalglish or uncle Tom Cobbley as a stop-gap for the rest of the season, before Jose Mourinho or Martin O'Neill can fill the role permanently, then they are exposing their complete and utter lack of knowledge about the workings of the Anfield club.
Indeed, if you read any story about the manager going between now and Christmas, then stop reading and dismiss the writer as an idiot who is exposing his ignorance. Because, for all the hysteria surrounding Benitez's position from the outside, I can assure you that there is no such focus from within the club.
Christian Purslow, the new Managing Director, has already gone on record to guarantee that the manager will be judged only at the end of the season, with the perspective of a full campaign, and all that that entails.
Even the American owners have confirmed that for all the talk of dire consequences should Liverpool fail to reach the knockout stages of the Champions League, the reality is that they have budgeted only to reach the group stages, and recent commercial successes have actually put the club in a strong position financially.
If Liverpool do go out at the first stage, they could lose some money, but then they may just as well make more, because they will have the chance to go on a long run in the Europa League, recouping those losses.
And even though they have now won just one of their last nine games, and were again disappointing against Birmingham on Monday night, they are still only three points off the benchmark position of entering the top four in the Premier League, which is the real test for any Liverpool manager.
Now, that's not to say that everything is rosy at Anfield - it clearly isn't. Benitez has admitted to mistakes this season, many of them, and he also accepts that he must act quickly and decisively if he is to turn things around.
But he has been without 14 players at various points in the campaign so far, including his three most valuable stars - Fernando Torres, Steven Gerrard and Glen Johnson.
Gerrard and Johnson returned to give the team a lift against Birmingham, and Torres should be back soon after the international break is over in a fortnight's time, when Liverpool entertain Manchester City, in a game that will say much about the likely make up of the top four this season.
It is actually making me angry, to keep hearing this uninformed nonsense that Benitez could be sacked before the season's out, because if he is, then it will go against almost 120 years of Anfield history, and believe me, not even the club's American owners are that stupid.
Benitez has had problems, big ones, but he may well be through the worst of those now, and he will have until at least the end of the season to prove that the quality squad he has built is still progressing, and can develop into genuine title contenders.
I'm not going to fall into the trap of wheeling out more facts to support Benitez like some of his allies do, because statistics about a winning record better than Paisley or Ferguson, and being voted the number one team in Europe over the past year, are completely worthless unless backed up with trophies.
Benitez knows that. He is a keen student of that proud 117 year history of the club, and all that has been achieved in that time. He is fully aware that he has at least until the end of the campaign to prove his understanding of that fact.
And if you hear anything different from an imposter claiming to know what's going on at Anfield, then you have my permission to scream.
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