Benitez has a chance to build his own legacy
By Chris Bascombe
Last Updated: 3:28am BST 23/05/2007
In pics: Head-to-head: AC Milan v Liverpool
Forum: Liverpool or AC Milan?
When Rafa Benitez stared at the European Cup in Istanbul two years ago, he could have felt intimidated by the reflections glittering from the most sought-after prize in club football.
Look closely, and he might have spotted Bob Paisley or Joe Fagan smiling back, reminding the Spaniard of a glorious history which often paralysed the club as much as enhanced it.
Liverpool have only recently re-established their credentials as a European superpower. Prior to Benitez, the club's membership of the elite was due to a rich inheritance rather than grand modern achievements.
Finding the balance between learning from the past and being obsessed with it was too much for Benitez's predecessor Gerard Houllier, who snapped at his final press conference in May 2004: "People say they want the club to go back to the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties. Fine. Not with me."
advertisement
Houllier's sentiments were understandable, if poorly executed. He'd been frustrated by the constraints of history. Endless tales of Rome 1977 and 1984, Wembley 1978 and Paris 1981 diverted attention from the fact at the turn of the millennium, on and off the pitch, Liverpool were a club needing to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century.
Manchester United left Liverpool trailing at every level. Commercially superior, United consolidated their advantage on the pitch allowing their supporters to launch an annual assault on the European territories Liverpool had laid their flags over for 25 years.
It was exactly 20 years since Liverpool's last European Cup final appearance when Benitez led his team to Istanbul in 2005. His success was as much about cleansing the club's soul after two decades of grubbiness as reviving it.
The supporters had endured two tragedies which defined a generation; regular cup humiliations at the hands of lower division clubs; a series of failed, multi-million pound signings; and false dawns under honest but ultimately flawed managers.
Worst of all, the sight of Sir Alex Ferguson indulging in his yearly open top bus tour of Manchester underlined how Liverpool had replaced their rivals as the club which were looking towards a golden past for salvation.
Houllier can be credited with starting the process when he won a cup treble in 2001, but it is Benitez who has fully restored Liverpool's sense of self-worth.
The present and future is the obsession of the tens of thousands of Liverpudlians heading to Athens, not the Shankly or Paisley era.
To a new generation, even a European Cup final isn't a journey into the unknown. It's an appointment pencilled into the diary every August.
Liverpool's fans also seem to have a greater understanding than their rivals of how an era can be defined by European success. This was never clearer than during the semi-final against Chelsea.
At Stamford Bridge the Londoners placed identical club flags on every seat and invited a well-spoken gent onto the pitch before kick-off to urge supporters to give them a good wave.
A week later, the mass of humanity on the Kop was a multi-coloured dreamcoat of bed spreads daubed in graffiti. "It just means more to our fans," Liverpool's Jamie Carragher claimed after the penalty shoot-out.
The swagger, some might call it strutting arrogance, of the Liverpool fans is back.They've always claimed an unspoken moral superiority to the nouveau support of Chelsea and United, but the reaction to epic Anfield European wins seems to justify the self-congratulation.
United and Chelsea may be swapping league titles, but there is an unshakeable belief that Benitez has not only denied Ferguson and Jose Mourinho the prize they crave most, with the help of the American dollar he'll eventually wrestle the Premiership from them too.
Whatever happens in Athens, Liverpool will mock United and Chelsea by singing about how they own a European Cup.
Nowadays, whenever Benitez feels inclined to give the trophy a polish, the only reflection staring back is his own.
By Chris Bascombe
Last Updated: 3:28am BST 23/05/2007
In pics: Head-to-head: AC Milan v Liverpool
Forum: Liverpool or AC Milan?
When Rafa Benitez stared at the European Cup in Istanbul two years ago, he could have felt intimidated by the reflections glittering from the most sought-after prize in club football.
Look closely, and he might have spotted Bob Paisley or Joe Fagan smiling back, reminding the Spaniard of a glorious history which often paralysed the club as much as enhanced it.
Liverpool have only recently re-established their credentials as a European superpower. Prior to Benitez, the club's membership of the elite was due to a rich inheritance rather than grand modern achievements.
Finding the balance between learning from the past and being obsessed with it was too much for Benitez's predecessor Gerard Houllier, who snapped at his final press conference in May 2004: "People say they want the club to go back to the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties. Fine. Not with me."
advertisement
Houllier's sentiments were understandable, if poorly executed. He'd been frustrated by the constraints of history. Endless tales of Rome 1977 and 1984, Wembley 1978 and Paris 1981 diverted attention from the fact at the turn of the millennium, on and off the pitch, Liverpool were a club needing to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century.
Manchester United left Liverpool trailing at every level. Commercially superior, United consolidated their advantage on the pitch allowing their supporters to launch an annual assault on the European territories Liverpool had laid their flags over for 25 years.
It was exactly 20 years since Liverpool's last European Cup final appearance when Benitez led his team to Istanbul in 2005. His success was as much about cleansing the club's soul after two decades of grubbiness as reviving it.
The supporters had endured two tragedies which defined a generation; regular cup humiliations at the hands of lower division clubs; a series of failed, multi-million pound signings; and false dawns under honest but ultimately flawed managers.
Worst of all, the sight of Sir Alex Ferguson indulging in his yearly open top bus tour of Manchester underlined how Liverpool had replaced their rivals as the club which were looking towards a golden past for salvation.
Houllier can be credited with starting the process when he won a cup treble in 2001, but it is Benitez who has fully restored Liverpool's sense of self-worth.
The present and future is the obsession of the tens of thousands of Liverpudlians heading to Athens, not the Shankly or Paisley era.
To a new generation, even a European Cup final isn't a journey into the unknown. It's an appointment pencilled into the diary every August.
Liverpool's fans also seem to have a greater understanding than their rivals of how an era can be defined by European success. This was never clearer than during the semi-final against Chelsea.
At Stamford Bridge the Londoners placed identical club flags on every seat and invited a well-spoken gent onto the pitch before kick-off to urge supporters to give them a good wave.
A week later, the mass of humanity on the Kop was a multi-coloured dreamcoat of bed spreads daubed in graffiti. "It just means more to our fans," Liverpool's Jamie Carragher claimed after the penalty shoot-out.
The swagger, some might call it strutting arrogance, of the Liverpool fans is back.They've always claimed an unspoken moral superiority to the nouveau support of Chelsea and United, but the reaction to epic Anfield European wins seems to justify the self-congratulation.
United and Chelsea may be swapping league titles, but there is an unshakeable belief that Benitez has not only denied Ferguson and Jose Mourinho the prize they crave most, with the help of the American dollar he'll eventually wrestle the Premiership from them too.
Whatever happens in Athens, Liverpool will mock United and Chelsea by singing about how they own a European Cup.
Nowadays, whenever Benitez feels inclined to give the trophy a polish, the only reflection staring back is his own.
Comment