Rafa Benitez laughs off quit rumours after Stoke hammering

Liverpool put a smile on the face of Rafa Benitez last night, leaving him to laugh off rumours that he might quit.

The Reds recovered from the disappointment of opening day defeat at Spurs to emphatically dismiss Stoke with the sort of Anfield attacking display that their manager has demanded to give them a shot at the title.

Afterwards, a relaxed Benitez revealed that he was amused to hear of speculation that he would walk out of the club because he was unhappy at a lack of financial backing from his board.

Bookmakers yesterday even stopped taking bets on him leaving such was the intensity of the rumours, but even though he is clearly desperate to get more funds to strengthen his squad, the Spaniard insisted he will stay and fight for the title if he doesn’t.

“I was told about the rumours, that maybe something happened here at Anfield, but I will tell the fans I want to stay - my commitment is 100 per cent,” Benitez said.

“If I can improve the squad I will be pleased, but if I can’t then I will stay to try and compete with the squad that we have.

“I can state I am committed to this club. When I signed a new contract I decided to stay here for the fans, for the staff for the players. We will try to get what we can, we will try to do what we can.

“We have nearly done the deal for Sotirios Kyriakos, it is just subject to the medical so we are bringing in a player, and we are trying to do what we can - we will see if we can compete with the squad that we have.”

Benitez hopes to complete the deal for Greece international centre half Kyriakos before the weekend allowing him to face Aston Villa on Monday, but in truth, Liverpool were comfortable even with 18 year old Danny Ayala filling in at centre back. 

A goal after just four minutes from Fernando Torres set the tone for a fine win, and Glen Johnson showed his attacking prowess with a wonderful display that had Benitez purring afterwards about his contribution - and that of Torres - afterwards.

“We were looking for that quality going forward, we wanted more quality in the wide areas and Johnson showed that he can deliver that.

“He gives us more in attack, he gives us more quality wide. Torres too was important. He was focused, concentrating and doing his job really well, and I’m pleased with that.”

The Spanish striker briefly left to field to have 10 stitches after a clash of heads with Stoke’s Ryan Shawcross, but returned to help Liverpool to their first win of the season after further goals from Johnson, the excellent Dirk Kuyt and substitute David Ngog.

And Benitez joked afterwards: “We are at the top of the table now - for stitches, Carra had 20 on Sunday, Srtel some more and now Torres, maybe 30 in total - so we are top!“

Stoke were left to lick their wounds with only a brief flurry after the break to show for their troubles, and boss Tony Pulis admitted: “We were beaten by a better team, nothing else to say, I’ll hold my hands up.

“You can’t give them a start like that, we spoke about restricting them early on, but once we conceded to Torres we were always up against it. But then, they’re a dangerous team from all over the pitch, and not just him and Gerrard. Kuyt and Johnson on the right were formidable.”