The Centre Circle

As Liverpool’s season continues to disintegrate in front of their eyes, a season that promised so much back in August, I think there should be some soul searching down at Anfield and some tough decisions will have to me made, and preferably soon. This is a club very much in inertia. More than often a struggling organisation’s troubles start at the very top, and the indecision filters down. Certainly true at Anfield the problems seem to be many and interlinked. Firstly, co owners – it almost never works. Tell me any company that has succeeded where two powerful independent businessmen have gone 50/50 into a deal of this type. I can’t think of one. My experience of these people are that they thrive when they themselves are in control. A partnership like this was always going to end in tears or in a stand-off. A stand-off means that big decisions are generally put off when one party blocks the other one and it leads to paralysis. In the meantime those down below in the organisation take things into their own hands, and build a powerbase so that they are difficult to shift. So it has proved.

To run a football club the owner has to make tough hard-nosed decisions and also has to be decisive. They have to realise when a manager has achieved as much as he is able to achieve and when his influence on the team is no longer having a positive effect. Not having the threat of the guillotine hang above his neck in the past few years, Rafa Benitez has completely cleared out the fabled “boot-room” and replaced them with his people. I run through this list – First team coach – Pelegrino, Fitness coach – Garcia, Miguel & Rodriguez, Goalkeeping coach  - Valero, Reserves Coach - Gomez-Perez, Chief scout - Marcia, Sports Therapists Ortega & Fernandez Ledezma. No wonder Gillett and Hicks so far have hung on to Benitez, because replacing him would cause carnage, over half the backroom staff would also go. He is also only 1 year into a long-term 5 year contract, a crazy decision considering Benitez has won virtually nothing since the European Cup triumph in 2005 and there seems to be a distinct lack of young talent rising up through the ranks. His transfer policy also must be called into question. Spending £16 million in the middle of a recession on a full-back (how many full-backs has Benitez got through in his tenure??) no madder how decent a player Glen Johnson is, seemed to me reckless wasteful business. Ultimately thought the sale of the “brains” of last year’s team Xavi Alonso and not replacing him with a ready made fit replacement, has cost Liverpool very dear. On the tactical side, Benitez always errs on the side of caution, he is ruled by fear of defeat and not by the ambition to win. I admire the loyalty shown to him by the Liverpool fans but after such a disappointing season, all this and more must be held at Benitez; his record should now be held to account.

True, the financial crisis has held back Liverpool in redeveloping the club (especially with regard to the new stadium plans), but now the chickens are really coming home to roost. I think the prospect of Champion’s League football at Anfield is now dead for next season after the 2-1 defeat at their greatest rivals Manchester United. That will cost them £30 million in income. More pressingly, will Fernando Torres and Stephen Gerrard hang around with no prospect of winning the league any time soon or even participating in Europe’s top club competition – will they even qualify for the Europa league? Even sixth place is now not guaranteed. Can Liverpool afford to hang onto Benitez, seeing that the club has gone so far backwards so quickly in the last six months? If the body language of the players is an indication, then after yesterday something drastic needs to happen to raise spirits around the club and for them to start winning again.

I really think that a fresh start at Anfield is sorely needed, and if it means a complete clearout to start building again, then so be it. English football is healthier when Liverpool is strong, and I suggest to Gillett and Hicks that they need to bite the bullet and to wield the axe, or they will suffer the consequences.