Why Liverpool's owners should heed Souey's warning, and does Harry believe Sol is over the hill

By Brian Reade

Published 05:00 12/12/09

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Graeme Souness has been rightly derided for some of his TV couch criticism of Liverpool.

When you brought Torben Piechnick, Istvan Kozma, Julian Dicks, Nicky Tanner, Paul Stewart, Mark Walters and Stig Inge Bjornebye to Anfield, attacking Rafa Benitez for making bad signings, is a bit like Jordan calling the Queen an old slapper.

But I hope the men pretending to run Liverpool take note of his view that if their team don't finish in the top four this season they could face meltdown.

Mainly because if Manchester City do, Champions League status allied to limitless wealth means they will attract the best players in the world and become very hard to budge.

The owners clearly don't care what a slide to mediocrity would mean to Liverpool fans, but maybe they should think about what it means to them. No middle-Eastern sugar daddy prepared to give them the massive profit they believe their highway robbery merits, just bankers sending the bailiffs in.

It's why everyone at the top of the shambles that currently passes for Liverpool FC needs to face a very harsh reality. If Benitez is given no money to spend next month it will be the third transfer window in a row that he's operated on a budget of nothing, and has yet to replace Robbie Keane who he sold 12 months ago. 

Meaning they have one out-and-out quality striker in Fernando Torres. Failure to let Benitez spend the £12 million he brought in for Keane on a replacement, could mean the difference, come May, between big-club status and meltdown.

And if the latter happens, not since Mike Ashley will owners have so richly deserved it.

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Harry Redknapp is massively bigging up Sol Campbell, advising Alex Ferguson to sign him on a free and give some much-needed cover to an injury-prone central defence. Which sounds like a nice tribute from one old pro to another. Until you remember there's another Premier League central defence even more injury-prone than Manchester United's. Tottenham's. "Sol has the ablity to play at the highest level and can do a job for anyone," says Harry. So why isn't he asking his pal to do a job for him? Anything to do with him really believing he's over the hill?

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This was Carlo Ancelotti after Chelsea beat Arsenal 3-0 at the Emirates two weeks ago: "We know very well our possibilities. We can win every game." And these are the results of every Chelsea game since: Lost to Blackburn in the Carling Cup, lost to Manchester City in the League, and drew with Apoel Nicosia in the Champions League. Signore Ancelotti meet Herr Schadenfreude.

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