Praise be for St James as Rafa’s wrangle lingers on

THOSE idiots who said England were a certainty for Euro 2008 — how stupid must they feel, eh?

Feeling no desire for omniscience, I fully admit Croatia made me look a fool last week. We’re not talking McClaren-stupid, just enough for me to avoid rash predictions in future.

The hysteria here gets worse. Forget an entire first-choice defence and attack was missing, while the goalkeeper and Gerrard were indescribably awful. This was a night of shame and infamy and that’s that.

I could claim to have jinxed England deliberately. It’s a ploy we regularly use on the website, predicting 3-0 wins to the opposition, however feeble.

It got us to Istanbul. Rafa and the boys played their part and it didn’t seem so funny at half time in the Ataturk, but our role in the triumph was wiped from the history books. That’s hurtful.

We revived the tactic for Newcastle and it worked a treat. My prediction said they’d beat us thanks to own goals by Benitez, Gillett and Hicks — a feeble joke but many a true word etc.

It’s another example of the Rafa standoff and it’s become tedious. One wondered whether he’d have the nerve to cite insufficient funding, although he later claimed they’ve stopped him acquiring free players. How likely is that, though?

It possibly centres on Mascherano, a player often ignored during transfer speculation since some think he’s already accounted for.

Words, some unpleasant, passed between owners and manager, sparking a press conference that made Houllier look like a poster boy for good mental health.

Almost every question received the same robotic response, apart from the bizarre interest in the England job.

Was that to get the fans onboard? The Charge Of The Light Brigade was a less catastrophic strategy.

Heads were scratched less feverishly once the Americans released their statement, but puzzlement was simply replaced by concern.

So we’re back to this: another club interested in Rafa’s services, worries about financial backing, implicit threats back and forth across the ocean. And just when things are starting to look good.

As a teenager, I was devastated by Shankly’s departure. It was only in adulthood we learned how the great man bullied and blustered to get his own way until the club finally accepted his oft-offered resignation.

If we could do that to Shankly, what makes Rafa thinks he’s secure? The owners are easy targets since they’ve no page in our history. They’re already open to accusations that net spending on players hasn’t improved under their tenure.

But too many fans want zillions spent without rhyme or reason, then shrug their shoulders at the cost of the new stadium, with no real idea how such startling amounts can be recouped. This isn’t Monopoly we’re playing.

So conspiracy theories abound. Was he forcing the club to dump him so he could take a pay-off and move to Munich?

Having been publicly admonished and told to concentrate on coaching, Benitez turned up at Newcastle in a tracksuit! Had he flipped? Or was the Champions’ League crest a pop at that loudmouth Allardyce? Either way it was hardly proof of unflinching focus on the task in hand.

Did Sissoko replace Mascherano to show how much we’d miss the latter if he were relinquished?

Once the game began, all the political and psychological nonsense evaporated. We were superb again.

The opposition will be derided, what we now call Besiktas Syndrome, where Liverpool can never beat good teams, only rubbish ones.

The abuse of Gerrard was bewildering. Newcastle suffers because of Owen’s England obsession, yet they boo another player who ensured the littlest backstabber has to concentrate on club duty for once.

Torres had a strange afternoon. His admirers in Madrid warned us his finishing could be eccentric but never prepared us for this.

Another 8-0 would have flattered us but only slightly. The sounds of discontent and chaos are never truly stifled at St James Park, and it never fails to satisfy when the Reds have made things even worse.

So Round 2 to Rafa clearly, but a knockout blow? Hardly. The rumble goes on. He says he will “keep winning games for my supporters”.

We’re not yours’, as we weren’t Shankly’s. We’re Liverpool’s. Something you’d do well to remember, before it’s too late.