Trust gone and game well and truly up for under-siege Benitez

LIVERPOOL’S American owners can wrap up their approach to Jurgen Klinsmann as an “insurance policy”.

They can tell manager Rafael Benitez that they never reached any agreement with the German who has since signed a deal with Bayern Munich.

They can even insist, as they have done, that Benitez now has their “support”. But the game is up. The trust is gone.

From now on the relationship between Benitez and owners Hicks and Gillett will be as meaningful as shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic.

After it emerged that the Klinsmann link was true, Hicks attempted a clear-the-air rapprochement, saying: “After George and I had a long and productive meeting with Rafa following the Manchester United match we put all our issues behind us.

“We received Rafa’s commitment that he wanted to stay with Liverpool. Rafa has both of our support and our communication is greatly improved.”

That may be true, but the latest revelation will only increase the relentless questions about Benitez’s future.

Going behind a manager’s back, even if it was an insurance policy, is not the Liverpool way.

Traditionally, Liverpool have backed their managers to the hilt.

They have allowed them time. Backed them with cash. Handed them the tiller of one of football’s most famous vessels and allowed them to steer their course in the certain knowledge that they were all sailing in the same direction.

Secrets, “insurance policies”, whatever, were not the way of Anfield.

There are few things more corrosive at a football club than uncertainty. Few things more unsettling than a manager picking up the newspaper and finding his job being linked with one big name after another.

The fact is Benitez has been drowning in a sea of uncertainty these past few months.

First it was Fabio Capello who was allegedly being lined up to take over. Then it was Jose Mourinho. Now we learn about Klinsmann.

The exact details of those links do not matter.

The fact is that Benitez had been left to stew while the drip, drip of rumour and conjecture seeped under the door of his Anfield office.

That is no way to treat a respected football man of 21 years standing.

It is no way to treat the guardian of a new dynasty even if Benitez had openly challenged the Liverpool owners over transfer policy.

Indeed, rather than accept the latest measure of support, Benitez might be tempted to question just how committed are the Americans.

The day they bought control of Liverpool for £88m they were long on flattery and smiles and promises of respecting sporting history.

But since then they have been short on any real substance which says they intend to restore Liverpool to their once-dominant position.

If they intended to recapture a league title which has eluded them for 18 years why has Benitez been allowed to buy with the big boys just once? That was £21m for Fernando Torres and no-one would argue that the Spanish striker has not been a brilliant success and made Liverpool a better team.

A permanent deal for Javier Mascherano, however, has still not been agreed and while the January transfer window so far has seen the arrival of £6.5m Slovakia defender Martin Skrtel it is not the sort of spending likely to guarantee Liverpool’s position in the top four.

In recent times Benitez has preached a conciliatory line: “I love the club, I love the fans, I love the city and I am very, very happy here.”

But he does not look happy. And neither should he while his employers deal in insurance.