Rafa Benitez to Italy? Juve got to be kidding...
It says a lot about how dreary a team's style of football is when even their owner falls asleep during a match.
Then again, as a lot of Liverpool supporters will testify, Tom Hicks is not the ideal benchmark by which to measure standards at Anfield given the dubious tenure he and George Gillett have endured as the club's self-styled custodians.
The Texan was seen waving to supporters from the directors' box; presumably waving a loosely clenched fist means something entirely different in Texas than it does on the banks of the Mersey.
Nonetheless, Rafael Benitez's side were still able to maintain their push for fourth place with a routine 2-0 win over Bolton amidst rumours, claims and counter-claims that the Spaniard was set to leave for Juventus and board the next flight out of Liverpool John Lennon Airport.
You have the city's poor relations, hoping to cause unrest at L4 ahead of their nervous visit next Saturday lunchtime with idle gossip, to thank for that final observation.
Despite the scrappy performance, the result was no less than Liverpool deserved and special plaudits should be given to Sotirios Kyrgiakos, who has proved to be the bargain of the season as far as Reds fans are concerned.
The veteran Greek centre-back's addition to the ranks last summer was met with doubts that he could fill the void left by Sami Hyypia's departure. Five months down the line, the fourth-choice defender proved his worth with another hard-fought performance that saw Kevin Davies neatly tucked into a small crevice of the 30-year-old's shorts in the process.
David Ngog also deserves some recognition for being arguably Liverpool's most creative player in the first half and for periods of the second half.
His strike rate of a goal every 125 minutes, compared to Michael Owen's one per 250 minutes, would have been reduced had he found the target instead of rifling a close-range effort at the crossbar but the club's season has enough ifs and buts surrounding it as it is without adding a guilt-edged miss to the equation.
A player continuing to dispel one particular 'what if' is Alberto Aquilani, who silenced the once highly vocal critics with another consistent performance. Having arrived on a wave of expectancy, and scepticism not long after, the Italian play-maker showed what Benitez's side were lacking at Molineux four days earlier.
There were no deals agreed to bring players to Anfield on deadline day, just the shipping out of a few academy kids and reserve team players. Perhaps those who were convinced that the likes of Silva, Villa and Turan were set to breeze through the gates of Melwood at the 11th hour will now realise the true extent of the club's financial predicament.
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