Liverpool's power struggle could eclipse the General Election
As the nation comes to terms with its first hung parliament since 1974, Liverpool are also gearing up for a leadership divide of its own following a highly disappointing campaign.
The recent General Election saw the nation look forward to a potential change for the better, or worse depending on your political allegiances, but Rafael Benitez has been in the firing line of more press daggers this season than Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg combined.
Talks with new chairman Martin Broughton have yet to prove conclusive with Anfield set to be the backdrop for yet another power struggle this summer as the boardroom and dug-out prepare to tangle once again as the direction of Merseyside’s 118-year-old institution still remains unclear.
Similarly to the Election, this saga has been played out in the media spotlight with weekly press conferences at the club’s Melwood training ground becoming the battleground for Benitez’s unwinnable war against the club’s American hierarchy.
In the past two seasons the former Valencia boss can have few complaints about the intense press scrutiny he has received, thanks in part to his own insistence to play up to the cameras and an audience of national hacks.
His guarantee in December that the Reds would be plying their trade in the Champions League next season handed the assembled journalists the ideal stick with which to beat him as Liverpool’s season went from bad to progressively worse, both on and off the pitch.
Ever since his infamous ‘facts’ onslaught about the double standards within the top-flight of the game, he has been seen as fair game by his most ardent detractors within the national press. He can have very few complaints about this because he has played up to this at nearly every opportunity.
Juventus continue to wait impatiently in the wings in the hope that they will finally get their man after a four-month courtship, but Benitez is determined to build links between Melwood and the club’s youth academy; righting the neglected wrongs of Gerard Houllier’s tenure.
He also appears to be hell-bent on seeing out George Gillett and Tom Hicks’ ill-fated spell as club owners by sitting tight and underlining, albeit unintentionally, how far from the finished product Liverpool are as a club rather than his own managerial abilities.
If the frustrating stalemate at the KC Stadium against Hull was to be his last ride, he cannot lay the blame for Xabi Alonso’s departure at Gillett and Hicks’ door because it was his unashamed pursuit of Gareth Barry the previous summer that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
As a result Liverpool looked lost this season with Lucas Leiva offering barely sufficient cover for the injury-prone Alberto Aquilani, who in turn has understandably struggled to adapt to life in England. Glen Johnson’s defensive frailties have also been exposed by the loss Alonso.
One swallow does not make a summer, of course, but the next few months will make a very big difference on the direction in which Liverpool Football Club is taken and both that and Benitez’ s future have to be taken into very careful consideration.
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