Benitez not happy with Fergie

PORNAPSTER wrote: »

Its actually a well known fact in football circles that FSW is his nickname. You're not a big fan?

Anyway, back to the topic at hand... I think its hilarious how FS... sorry Benitez is so wound up that he had to get personal with SAF. Surely a sign of a man feeling the heat of the mighty red devils. :cool:

mayordenis wrote: »

Farce that is still top of the league and still ahead of "the master of mindgames" - that's a cool name, so cool you should tattoo it on your scrotum.

only1stevo wrote: »

instead of clowning around and messing with the master of mindgames.

YOU have to go back more than 20 years to the last time a Liverpool manager verbally took on Alex Ferguson.

On that occasion, back in April 1988, Kenny Dalglish famously held aloft his baby daughter Lauren and informed members of Her Majesty's press that they would get more sense out of her than the United boss, who was ranting and raving about decisions not going his way at Anfield.

The put down worked. Fergie was stopped in his tracks, Dalglish had shown his ability to get the better of an adversary with a single line and, most importantly, Liverpool finished the season as champions.

Rafa Benitez is an altogether different animal to his Anfield predecessor. Without the language skills or the cutting humour honed on decades of banter in British football's dressing rooms, the Spaniard is only marginally more likely to come out with a telling quip than he is to exchange pleasantries with Jose Mourinho.

But, like Dalglish, he is a fighter and if he feels that putting himself on the line is the best thing for his club that is exactly what he will do.

So, although the timing of Benitez's outburst against Ferguson and his empire may well have been surprising, the fact that he did it was not.

This is a manager, don't forget, who a little over a year ago detonated a bomb under Liverpool's boardroom when he used a press conference to reveal just how bad his relationship had become with owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett.

This time the setting was exactly the same and the shockwaves from the explosion he caused were just as widespread. The only difference was that the grenade he had chucked landed at Old Trafford, not Anfield.

In the immediate aftermath even seasoned Liverpool observers struggled with what to make of Benitez's sensational eruption.

Was this a manager feeling the pressure? Had he taken Ferguson's bait and put his team and himself at the mercy of United, the reigning champions of England and Europe, let's not forget.

Or was it a moment of inspiration from a street fighter who was prepared to take the battle to Liverpool's great rivals after establishing a position of strength at the top of the Premier League table?

The debate will rage and the final answer will not be known until the season has ended and the final ordering of the league table either makes Benitez look a genius or a fool.

But one thing even his biggest critics have not accused the Liverpool boss of being is wrong. For decades some of English football's leading figures have tip-toed around the elephant in the room that is Fergie's bullying of officialdom.

Finally, someone has had the bottle to call it for what it is and the catalogue of facts that Benitez produced in an attempt to prove his point could have been a whole lot longer had it not dated back only to incidents over the last 12 months.

Benitez has never been afraid to take on the established order and the best example of his refusal to bow down to perceived sacred cows came during his last season in charge of Valencia.

After seeing his team concede a 93rd minute equaliser from the penalty spot against Real Madrid after the fourth official had indicated just a single minute of stoppage time, he launched into a tirade aimed at highlighting the degree of power Spain's regal team held over the rest of La Liga.

"For some people we are too strong a rival and it would obviously be wrong for us to win the league," he said.

"I saw the fourth official's board clearly. Without the extra minutes they would not have blown for a penalty.

"In any 100 other matches, they wouldn't have awarded that penalty. At the Bernabeu, you have to win twice just to get half a result."

Benitez is no novice when it comes to mind games and Kevin Keegan is clearly not the reference point that certain people would have us believe that he is.

For, whereas Keegan blew up in an emotional, spur of the moment reaction, Benitez's outburst was calculated, detailed, measured and had been prepared for some time before the outburst – hence the page full of notes he pulled from his pocket at the outset.

Furthermore, Keegan's eruption came as it became increasingly apparent that his Newcastle team was cracking under the pressure and was about to succumb to United.

Benitez's came with his team on top of the league and at a time when it was finally beginning to be seen as genuine title challengers. It was as if the Reds boss had been emboldened by Liverpool's form and decided to strike while the iron was hot.

There is no doubt, though, that Benitez has reacted to Ferguson's jibes and that is what the Glaswegian is looking for every time he declares psychological warfare.

Like the pub bully who keeps poking you in the chest looking for a reaction, the best answer is usually to refuse to give him what he wants and instead to turn the other cheek.

But sometimes you have to stand up to such antagonism, fight fire with fire, and put the aggressor in his place or face a lifetime of subjugation.

This is the path Benitez has chosen and it should be remembered that the last time he went to the mattresses after taking on a seemingly unbreakable opponent it was the softly spoken Spaniard who inflicted most damage on his adversary.

On that occasion it was Mourinho himself, another apparent master of the dark arts, who yielded as the infinitely superior Chelsea side he had put together with Roman Abramovich's millions was twice dumped out of the Champions League at the semi-final stage by Benitez's Liverpool.

It was only when the special one was removed from the equation that Chelsea were able to find their way past Liverpool in Europe's biggest and most prestigious cup competition.

Benitez is no novice. He knew what he was doing when he launched into a tirade against Ferguson.

The only thing that has surprised him is just how big an impact it has made, with the Reds boss of the belief that the seismic shock it caused stems from the fact that most people in football never imagined that someone would dare put their head above the parapet and speak the truth.

Liverpool have always been the kind of club that does its talking on the pitch. But these are very different media-driven times in which advantages are sought and often gained by using television and newspapers to unsettle and unnerve opponents.

Benitez remains adamant that his verbal attack on a rival manager does not mark any departure from the much fabled Liverpool way, though. To the Spaniard, the Liverpool way is to fight, and that is exactly what he did at Friday's press conference.

The unimpressive draw with Stoke did not help his cause as it gave his critics an instant stick with which to beat him.

But Benitez knows this is a long fight and winners and losers will not be determined in the space of a single weekend.

This battle will go all the way to May and it is likely to become increasingly dirty should Liverpool and United continue to go toe to toe at the top of the Premier League.

Anyone who knows the history and rivalry of the north west's, and perhaps the world's, biggest clubs, knows full well that no quarter will be asked and none will be given, particularly not with United one league title win away from equalling Liverpool's record of 18.

This is a massive season for Benitez but it is also huge for Ferguson because he knows that if he is to fulfil his ambition of knocking Liverpool off their "f***ing perch" this is the best chance he is ever likely to get.

Title success for Liverpool would leave the United boss needing three more of his own for his life's work to be complete and having reached pensionable age two years ago he knows the sands of time are against him.

Like Dalglish, Benitez has decided to take Ferguson on. Now he must hope that like it was for his illustrious predecessor it is the precursor to championship glory in May.

David Gill wrote:

"I was elected over the summer by the Premier League clubs. I'm very clear in my role," he told reporters.

"I think it is totally incorrect to assert that," Gill added, referring to the conflict-of-interest accusation.

"It's not how I work. I do not think I would have been elected for the last two years if that was the case... He missed the boat completely."