The new Ferguson, or the next Ranieri?

IT’S not often you feel gratitude towards Everton, especially after such a dismal cup exit, but I needed a little quiet time at the weekend.

2009 has been like a rollercoaster without brakes. Who said what, who’s done this, whose fault is that, why are we selling him, where’s the replacement, for God’s sake Lucas, etc.

When all that troubles you is an international friendly in Spain and your only task is to pray Torres doesn’t snap something, well it’s been an oasis of calm amidst a cacophonic dementothon.

The Thriller in Seville (ouch) was actually a pleasant experience, seeing as the home squad featured five Reds and made a Liverpool-lite England look decidedly pedestrian.

Okay, that atrocious jellyhead Allardyce practically accused Rafa of resting Torres to enhance Spain’s chances but even that had its uses.

I may think Benitez is a stubborn, slightly barking control freak but if someone as repellent as (ha!) ‘Big’ Sam hates his guts that’ll soon wake you up to what side you’re really on.

I’m sure he will have appreciated the acute irony of perhaps losing one of his finer players because he hasn’t rotated enough.

Daniel Agger is the latest whining thorn in the flesh. Mancs will no doubt be rubbing their hands in glee at this Heinze-like ingratitude after nearly a year on the sidelines through injury.

Early this season Benitez emulated his predecessor by trying to adopt a more stable back four. Henchoz and Hyypia barely missed a game at the decade’s dawn, while Houllier moved everyone else around on a whim.

It was bizarre listening to Benitez accuse the club of sluggishness in acceding to young Danny’s rather opulent demands, when he himself seems to favour the Carragher/Skrtel partnership.

In these financially parlous times I suspect the owners would only double a player’s wages if he was deemed essential, and if someone else who cost e20 million was seen first as peripheral then as expendable within five months you can see why they’d stop deferring to the manager on all things fiscal.

When there’s no game to analyse it provides time for reflection, a chance to savour what we have, instead of glowering menacingly about what we haven’t.

We’d have gladly accepted this back in August, though I suspect the situation will have worsened by the time I speak to you again.

And that won’t be our fault. United are setting a relentless pace, their game in hand is tonight and when they brush Derby aside with ease despite half a team rested it is admittedly disconcerting.

But what can we do about it? Benitez is in a unique position compared to his predecessors. He is improving our point totals but still not winning the title, so there’s progress with (in the short-term) little reward.

We’d be fools to let the threatened United parity alarm us too much — 18 league titles each, 18 years after Dalglish resigned and triggered our starvation years. That’s a little too much symmetry right enough.

The Chelsea freak show highlights the fact that, for all our supposed ills and a ton of boardroom intrigue, this is still a club that tries to do The Right Thing.

We’ve had the same number of managers in 18 years as they’ve had in five, and Souness only lasted three of those.

We face City on the anniversary of Kenny’s shock exit. Lacking the perspective of the average man, I still regard that as one of the worst days of my life.

Ever since then we have followed the same patient plan with our managers; wait until they’re so bad even David Moores has noticed, then get rid. They’ve all been allowed what Houllier archly coined a ‘blip’ period.

Now that our massively compensated, incomparably incompetent ex-chairman no longer calls the shots will there be calls for a more radical approach?

Can we expect Rafa to merely tweak next season’s squad instead of the annual revolving-door policy that has produced such a staggering influx of floundering flotsam? In other words, when will the work in progress become the finished product?

Or should such impatient speculation be dismissed with the ancient Anfield epithet: We’re improving, he’s staying, end of story.

I’d prefer to have the discussion at least, rather than being shouted down by yowling neophytes who may soon drown in their own toadying drool if they’re not careful. Is our man the new Ferguson, or the next Ranieri?

Even by May we may not know the answer to that one. Come on, Fulham.