Liverpool need to clear the decks

Rafael Benitez is reported to be on the brink of leaving Liverpool and Patrick Barclay, writing in the Times, feels the club’s star men Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres should head for pastures new as well.

"The party’s over. It’s time to call it a day.

No critic of a certain age writes off an era in the history of Liverpool Football Club without being haunted by the Frank Sinatra song.

ITV played it over scenes of Bob Paisley’s players disconsolately heading for the Anfield tunnel after a first-round knockout by Nottingham Forest in the European Cup of 1978-79. They had been champions in each of the previous two seasons and the feeling was that time, tide and Brian Clough were impatient.

Forest did indeed win the European Cup that season, and the season after, but Liverpool were to lift the trophy a third and fourth time — and take eight domestic titles in 12 years — before the tradition of plucking managers from boot room or dressing room was abandoned. Those years featured quite a bit of partying in which the name of the ITV commentator associated with the ill-fated sequence was toasted.

But the party to celebrate Rafael Benítez’s achievements ended years ago. It was fun and two of the finals — of the Champions League against AC Milan in Istanbul in 2005 and the FA Cup against West Ham United in Cardiff a year later — were classics. But revelry has given way to a cross between a wake and a revival meeting. And Liverpool are not going to be revived by Benítez.

A break from Anfield’s daily charade is the least he deserves. Football people understand that Liverpool are prisoners of their proud past as well as the chaotic present and Benítez will have no trouble finding his next post. Juventus are pressing him for a decision and even Real Madrid are interested.

If only Liverpool’s future were as simple. The club need new ownership. If that cannot be arranged — and at present it looks about as likely as the much-promised new stadium — they need greatly scaled-down expectations. When Benítez goes, he should be swiftly followed by Torres, Gerrard while he can still command a large fee, Javier Mascherano and the rest.

Then the new manager will have some money to work with. As David Moyes has shown with Everton, and Roy Hodgson most startlingly with Fulham, it need not be a king’s ransom. Neither, of course, has been quite so cursed as Benítez by those expectations. But Liverpool do have one thing: potential. It should sustain them through the long haul. But the party? Collect the empties."