In dressing-rooms at football clubs up and down the country, the hottest topic of the moment is Ricky Hatton’s WBC welterweight title contest against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the early hours of Sunday, but woe betide any Liverpool player who intends to stay up until 4am to watch the action live on Sky Box Office.
With a critical Champions League encounter away to Marseilles on Tuesday evening, Rafael Benítez, the manager, has told his players that they cannot risk disrupting their sleep patterns by watching the Hatton bout. This may sound like a typical instance of megalomania from a manager who upset his players at Valencia by banning paella, ice cream and olives from the canteen at the training ground, but Benítez feels it is necessary. After their 5.15pm kick-off for the Barclays Premier League match away to Reading on Saturday, they will fly back to Mer-seyside and have a meal together before being sent home under strict instruction to get a good night’s sleep.
“We try to control these things,” BenÍtez said yesterday. “After the game the players will have dinner and we take care of these things. Some players need more time than others, but it’s really important to rest, especially in this situation, where we are playing late away and then away again soon after. I don’t think the players will be staying up to watch the fight. Anyway, they have DVDs.”
With a light training session planned at Melwood on Sunday before a 10am flight out of John Lennon International Airport on Monday, BenÍtez is determined that his team will be in peak condition for the challenges that lie ahead next week. With that in mind, he was delighted to report yesterday that Daniel Agger and Xabi Alonso could be in the squad that travels to France after being given the all-clear to step up their training after being sidelined by metatarsal fractures, and that Jamie Carragher is fit to play at Reading, having recovered from a rib injury.
As well as the match in Marseilles, which they must win in order to guarantee their progress to the Champions League knockout stage, Liverpool have a crucial league match at home to Manchester United on December 16. Somewhere in the midst of this BenÍtez must also find time to sit down with Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr., the club’s owners, in the hope of resolving the disagreements that have cast serious doubts about his long-term future at Anfield.
BenÍtez, fully aware how his position has been compromised by his recent fall-outs with the board, has been far more contrite over the past ten days as he has sought to repair his relationship with Hicks and Gillett, but he is eager to press his case with regard to strengthening the squad during the January transfer window. A new central defender to cover for Carragher, Agger and Sami Hyypia remains a priority, as does securing a permanent deal to sign Javier Mascherano, whose contract at Anfield expires on June 30.
BenÍtez antagonised Liverpool’s owners last month by negotiating a £17 million deal directly with Kia Joorabchian, the head of the companies that own Mascherano’s economic rights. Hicks and Gillett effectively vetoed that deal, feeling that BenÍtez was wrong to commit to such a sum, but the Spaniard is eager to impress on them the importance of securing a long-term deal for the Argentina midfield player, who, concerned by the lack of reassurances from the board about BenÍtez’s long-term future, is attracting rival interest from Barcelona and Manchester City.
“Clearly, I hope Mascherano stays here,” BenÍtez said yesterday. “We are talking now about this but I have confidence because he tells me he wants to stay. I am confident he can be persuaded to stay here. He is playing well and everyone knows he is a good player and there are not too many world-class holding midfielders around. He wants to stay, our supporters like him and we will try to keep him.”
With a critical Champions League encounter away to Marseilles on Tuesday evening, Rafael Benítez, the manager, has told his players that they cannot risk disrupting their sleep patterns by watching the Hatton bout. This may sound like a typical instance of megalomania from a manager who upset his players at Valencia by banning paella, ice cream and olives from the canteen at the training ground, but Benítez feels it is necessary. After their 5.15pm kick-off for the Barclays Premier League match away to Reading on Saturday, they will fly back to Mer-seyside and have a meal together before being sent home under strict instruction to get a good night’s sleep.
“We try to control these things,” BenÍtez said yesterday. “After the game the players will have dinner and we take care of these things. Some players need more time than others, but it’s really important to rest, especially in this situation, where we are playing late away and then away again soon after. I don’t think the players will be staying up to watch the fight. Anyway, they have DVDs.”
With a light training session planned at Melwood on Sunday before a 10am flight out of John Lennon International Airport on Monday, BenÍtez is determined that his team will be in peak condition for the challenges that lie ahead next week. With that in mind, he was delighted to report yesterday that Daniel Agger and Xabi Alonso could be in the squad that travels to France after being given the all-clear to step up their training after being sidelined by metatarsal fractures, and that Jamie Carragher is fit to play at Reading, having recovered from a rib injury.
As well as the match in Marseilles, which they must win in order to guarantee their progress to the Champions League knockout stage, Liverpool have a crucial league match at home to Manchester United on December 16. Somewhere in the midst of this BenÍtez must also find time to sit down with Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr., the club’s owners, in the hope of resolving the disagreements that have cast serious doubts about his long-term future at Anfield.
BenÍtez, fully aware how his position has been compromised by his recent fall-outs with the board, has been far more contrite over the past ten days as he has sought to repair his relationship with Hicks and Gillett, but he is eager to press his case with regard to strengthening the squad during the January transfer window. A new central defender to cover for Carragher, Agger and Sami Hyypia remains a priority, as does securing a permanent deal to sign Javier Mascherano, whose contract at Anfield expires on June 30.
BenÍtez antagonised Liverpool’s owners last month by negotiating a £17 million deal directly with Kia Joorabchian, the head of the companies that own Mascherano’s economic rights. Hicks and Gillett effectively vetoed that deal, feeling that BenÍtez was wrong to commit to such a sum, but the Spaniard is eager to impress on them the importance of securing a long-term deal for the Argentina midfield player, who, concerned by the lack of reassurances from the board about BenÍtez’s long-term future, is attracting rival interest from Barcelona and Manchester City.
“Clearly, I hope Mascherano stays here,” BenÍtez said yesterday. “We are talking now about this but I have confidence because he tells me he wants to stay. I am confident he can be persuaded to stay here. He is playing well and everyone knows he is a good player and there are not too many world-class holding midfielders around. He wants to stay, our supporters like him and we will try to keep him.”
