Benitez must be given time to secure title
Mar 5 2007
by Nick Smith, Liverpool Daily Post
IT doesn’t need a flight across the Atlantic for George Gillett and Tom Hicks to see how the land lies on this side of it.
The Americans want to give the fans trophies. The fans want the Premiership trophy. So they didn’t have to be at Anfield on Saturday to know they’ve got some way to go before they can fulfil that dream.
Because Liverpool aren’t getting any closer to it – in fact, this campaign has simply been two steps back from the giant strides made in the previous one.
Then, Rafael Benitez led his side to their highest points tally of the Premiership era, a total just one point lower than United’s yet still a full nine off champions Chelsea.
But the gap was closing, the standards were being raised and with a full, glorious summer market opening up before Benitez it seemed that a bit of shrewd investment was all that was needed to take Liverpool even closer to that elusive 19th title.
Less than a year later, and Jamie Carragher is talking about “better players” being needed to end the frustrating wait. Firmly back to square one.
Liverpool are third, as they were then, but now they stand 10 points behind Chelsea.
And as for Manchester United? Liverpool more than matched them over 90 minutes on Saturday, but in wider terms, the champions-elect have shaken them off from the coat tails and raced away into the distance – now measured at 19 points.
Given that Americans are obsessed with statistics, the new major shareholders will be well aware of those facts.
But they should also be aware of how the only top-flight manager Benitez has yet to get the better of, Sir Alex Ferguson, was able to end his 26-year wait for an Old Trafford title and why, just 14 years later, he stands on the brink of his ninth.
Simply, because he was given time and money. Obviously there’s more to that when building the empire he has, but without those basics it could have crumbled before the foundations were in place.
Benitez is nearing the end of his third season at the Anfield helm – in Ferguson’s world he’s just a wee beginner.
When the Scot won the FA Cup in 1990, he was marking the end of his third full term with his first trophy. If he hadn’t won it he probably wouldn’t even have made it to the end of that campaign.
And it would take another three years for him to deliver the title the club desperately craved. After the same amount of time, Benitez already has an FA Cup and achieved Ferguson’s obsession of conquering European 13 times quicker than him.
Few would back against him doing it again following a successful job completion against reigning champions Barcelona tomorrow.
But it doesn’t change the fact that Liverpool see their rightful place at the top of the English game and this season has only gone to show how much higher the standards are that you have to reach to do it.
Certainly more so than in Ferguson’s time. In the first Premiership campaign of 1992-93, United could have taken the title with just 75 points – and that was in a 42-game season.
Win their next game and they will be on that total already after just 30 games.
The previous two seasons have seen Chelsea set a frighteningly similar pace and the year before that Arsenal didn’t even lose a league game on their way to the Premiership summit.
Ferguson didn’t have to snap anything like a similar stranglehold when he broke his title duck. Liverpool were ageing and their dominance was in decline, while a series of big-money buys finally edged Ferguson over the finishing line and he’s rarely looked back.
Nobody is in any doubt that Benitez is the man to bring similar triumphs back to Anfield, or more realistically Stanley Park.
But the letter to America reads, give him the same tools Ferguson had.
Time and money – and a lot more of both.
CLICKY - Daily Post
Mar 5 2007
by Nick Smith, Liverpool Daily Post
IT doesn’t need a flight across the Atlantic for George Gillett and Tom Hicks to see how the land lies on this side of it.
The Americans want to give the fans trophies. The fans want the Premiership trophy. So they didn’t have to be at Anfield on Saturday to know they’ve got some way to go before they can fulfil that dream.
Because Liverpool aren’t getting any closer to it – in fact, this campaign has simply been two steps back from the giant strides made in the previous one.
Then, Rafael Benitez led his side to their highest points tally of the Premiership era, a total just one point lower than United’s yet still a full nine off champions Chelsea.
But the gap was closing, the standards were being raised and with a full, glorious summer market opening up before Benitez it seemed that a bit of shrewd investment was all that was needed to take Liverpool even closer to that elusive 19th title.
Less than a year later, and Jamie Carragher is talking about “better players” being needed to end the frustrating wait. Firmly back to square one.
Liverpool are third, as they were then, but now they stand 10 points behind Chelsea.
And as for Manchester United? Liverpool more than matched them over 90 minutes on Saturday, but in wider terms, the champions-elect have shaken them off from the coat tails and raced away into the distance – now measured at 19 points.
Given that Americans are obsessed with statistics, the new major shareholders will be well aware of those facts.
But they should also be aware of how the only top-flight manager Benitez has yet to get the better of, Sir Alex Ferguson, was able to end his 26-year wait for an Old Trafford title and why, just 14 years later, he stands on the brink of his ninth.
Simply, because he was given time and money. Obviously there’s more to that when building the empire he has, but without those basics it could have crumbled before the foundations were in place.
Benitez is nearing the end of his third season at the Anfield helm – in Ferguson’s world he’s just a wee beginner.
When the Scot won the FA Cup in 1990, he was marking the end of his third full term with his first trophy. If he hadn’t won it he probably wouldn’t even have made it to the end of that campaign.
And it would take another three years for him to deliver the title the club desperately craved. After the same amount of time, Benitez already has an FA Cup and achieved Ferguson’s obsession of conquering European 13 times quicker than him.
Few would back against him doing it again following a successful job completion against reigning champions Barcelona tomorrow.
But it doesn’t change the fact that Liverpool see their rightful place at the top of the English game and this season has only gone to show how much higher the standards are that you have to reach to do it.
Certainly more so than in Ferguson’s time. In the first Premiership campaign of 1992-93, United could have taken the title with just 75 points – and that was in a 42-game season.
Win their next game and they will be on that total already after just 30 games.
The previous two seasons have seen Chelsea set a frighteningly similar pace and the year before that Arsenal didn’t even lose a league game on their way to the Premiership summit.
Ferguson didn’t have to snap anything like a similar stranglehold when he broke his title duck. Liverpool were ageing and their dominance was in decline, while a series of big-money buys finally edged Ferguson over the finishing line and he’s rarely looked back.
Nobody is in any doubt that Benitez is the man to bring similar triumphs back to Anfield, or more realistically Stanley Park.
But the letter to America reads, give him the same tools Ferguson had.
Time and money – and a lot more of both.
CLICKY - Daily Post
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