[Moschops II]

The Times
November 29, 2007

Kop offers strongest statement of support for Rafael BenÍtez
Oliver Kay: Commentary

Of the principal players in the unedifying drama that has begun to unfold at Anfield, it is Rafael BenÍtez’s misfortune to be the one who is continually asked to take centre stage. Rather than keep his head down, which would surely be his preference, the Liverpool manager has been required over the past week to put it above the parapet on an almost daily basis, each time offering the club’s American owners another opportunity to look for the signs of petulance and subordinacy that would lead to him being dismissed.

At times they have not had to look very hard, with BenÍtez all but talking himself out of a job over the weekend with his criticism of Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr, but it is not his wish to play into the hands of a board whose support he knows he has lost. Even if his present working conditions seem intolerable in the long term, he feels he is on to a good thing at Liverpool, a club where he is adored by those whose views he values most, if not by those whose opinions carry the most weight.

The feelings of supporters are not supposed to count for much in the cutthroat world of modern football, particularly in the era of foreign ownership, but at Liverpool, if nowhere else, there is cause to think that they should. The contribution of the Kop has at times been overstated when it comes to intimidating opponents on the club’s European glory nights, but it would be a brave and foolhardy pair of Americans who dismiss a manager on account of their own bruised egos. The trouble is that Hicks, in particular, is reputed to be the foolhardy, impulsive type.

Before last night’s game, there was an organised protest march from the Sandon pub to the stadium, with about 2,500 supporters expressing their solidarity with BenÍtez. But anyone can sing a song and not mean it. Far more impressive were the number and sheer variety of banners that were unfurled in the Kop, many of them written in his own Spanish tongue. The biggest was 90 feet long and stated, with a wry nod to BenÍtez’s statements last week, that “as always we are focusing on supporting our manager”, but the most touching simply said “ En Rafa confiamos.” In Rafa we trust. There must be a roaring trade in Spanish-English dictionaries on Merseyside at present.

This reverence - this remarkable, if not quite unbreakable, bond that links Liverpool’s supporters to managers past and present – is all that BenÍtez has been left to cling to in these the darkest days of his regime. That and the unswerving loyalty of his own No 1 supporter. Montse BenÍtez does not feature prominently on the dramatis personae, but are Hicks and Gillett brave enough to take on Anfield’s First Lady, an elegant lady but one whose reaction upon hearing that her husband was attracting interest from Real Madrid was “You can go but I’m staying here.”

In the age of the WAG, Señora BenÍtez is a class apart. Last night, as ever, she was on her perch in the directors’ box, thankfully not next to Foster Gillett, and she seemed to put as much energy as Javier Mascherano into every tackle.

When Fernando Torres scored his second goal with 12 minutes remaining, she and her Spanish companions celebrated so wildly that they seemed in danger of being thrown out for rowdy behaviour.

Both before the game and at the final whistle, she could be seen lip-synching to You’ll Never Walk Alone, an anthem whose words ring truer than ever for her and her husband after an evening such as this.