UK Football

photo: Nigel Wilson

After an amazing 4-0 victory over Real Madrid, Rafa Benitez and Liverpool are poised to once again challenge for the top spot in the Premiership, or at least that’s what Benitez himself thinks.  “This is the best way to approach the Manchester United game,” Benitez said in an after match interview. “When you have an important game coming up and the players are playing this well and scoring four goals against a team like Real Madrid, you have to be pleased.

“We play a very good team on Saturday and we have to win. If we can reduce the gap we will be in the title race but we have to wait and see what happens at Old Trafford.

“Hopefully we have given Manchester United something to think about but they have a very good team. At least we will approach the game with a lot of confidence.”

And Benitez does have a point, but Old Trafford is a very hard place, if not the hardest venue in the Premiership, to beat the home team, and Manchester United have well and truly hit their stride.  Really everything hinges on United’s performance tonight, if Inter Milan and Jose Mourinho come off the victors, then Saturday we’re bound to see a dishevelled and perhaps even disjointed Manchester United team.  But if United win, the champions will look unstoppable in their weekend return to Old Trafford, and Liverpool will be hard pressed to calm the red devil attack, let alone best them on the score line.

Yet another injury to plague a West Ham team that has endured their fair share of hardship this season, as Valon Behrami has suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury, which will sideline the Switzerland international for at least six months.  Behrami has been fantastic for West Ham, and no doubt Gianfranco Zola will be hard pressed to adjust his squad to make up for Behrami’s ability and work rate.  But Zola has done amazing things with the squad he’s had so far, leaving me to believe West Ham will be just fine.

Rafa Benitez turned down Liverpool’s offer to extend the Spaniard’s contract with the club, citing that the new deal would not provide for the decision making power Benitez desires. Apparently Rafa wants more control over transfers, to the point where he is the last word in all decisions on players coming in and out of the club. Opposed to the system now currently in place, in which all transfer decisions must go through chief executive Rick Parry.

Which is exactly what Benitez said in his reasoning for the decision, “I have a lot of experience in football at different clubs and if you do not have a technical director and you are the manager you have to have control of the football decisions. “But always within the confines of a budget which is controlled by the owners and the club.

“In this scenario the manager knows the amount money he has available to him and can decide how much he should spend on each player according to the needs of the team.

“The only person who can decide the value of a player to his squad is the manager because he knows what elements are needed to improve the squad.”

Although I do understand if Hicks and Gillett are a bit apprehensive about giving Benitez so much responsibility considering how the last big transfer push from Benitez worked out. Because seriously, Robbie Keane? That’s the quality Benitez is fighting for?

A £20 million deal Liverpool will never gain anything from, and no doubt the debt would be bigger if Benitez would have had no one to answer to. Benitez has always struck me as a manager that would purchase an expensive player on a whim, and that’s not the person you want at a football club, with all the transfer power.

Craig Bellamy submitted a transfer request to West Ham United, apparently he’s interesting in the offers from Tottenham and Manchester City. But West Ham have turned him down, and that’s a good decision, because Dean Ashton still won’t be back for some time, and without Bellamy West Ham don’t have a capable striker.

And Jose Mourinho is apparently targeting Tottenham’s Jermaine Jenas. Good luck prying a talented midfielder from a struggling club before summer though.

For the richest club in the world Manchester City sure are pinching pennies in their attempts to land major players. Seriously, a £12million bid for Roque Santa Cruz? That’s all? Did City really think Blackburn would budge on their best player for that? I know the global economy isn’t doing so well, but it’s going take at least £20 before a team even thinks about parting with one of their brightest stars. Especially a club like Blackburn, that’s dropped into the relegation zone.

I also have to wonder what a club like Manchester City with practically infinite riches is doing targeting so low as Craig Bellamy of West Ham. I understand Bellamy is a great player, but it’s a fact that City shouldn’t get him for two reasons. One, Bellamy isn’t the class of player City need to make their dreams of challenging for the top four reality. And two, West Ham aren’t going to sell their best striker with Dean Ashton likely out for the season.

Aim higher, if you want a great club Mark Hughes. Or maybe that’s the problem, Mark Hughes. Already he’s running the richest club into the ground, is Abu Dhabi United Group really going to let him waste their first transfer window opportunities?