Limp Liverpool leave Benitez red-faced

THE past few days have proved that all that remains of the old Liverpool are the 1970s carpets in the main stand at Anfield.

The club that used to keep all its talking behind the Boot Room’s locked doors has become a virtual open house in recent times, with Rafael Benitez’s attack on Alex Ferguson just the latest in a series of very public scraps. But while the Spaniard’s assault on his Manchester United rival has gained him popularity with neutrals there is a nagging sense that, having been knocked off their perch by United all those years ago, the manager has set up his club for another fall.

Perhaps it is naive to mourn the passing of the old days when Liverpool worked by the principals of the legendary chairman John Smith, whose mantra was: “We’re a very modest club. We don’t talk, we don’t boast and we are very professional.”