Benitez plans for uncertain future

DESPITE all the insults being traded around him and lack of support in certain quarters of the Anfield board room, Rafael Benitez has delivered, yet again, the minimum requirement of Champions League football for Liverpool.

Whether he will be around to mastermind another attempt at lifting the trophy next season remains to be seen.

Yet, whatever the outcome of the Tom Hicks, George Gillette and Dubai International Capital power-wrangle, there will be some very hard thinking for whoever triumphs should Benitez secure a sixth European title for Liverpool in Moscow next month. It is a hypothetical scenario he believes he can make reality, beginning at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night.