On May 17, 1990, Manchester United beat Crystal Palace 1-0 in the FA Cup Final replay to win the first silverware of Sir Alex Ferguson's 22-year reign at Old Trafford. It had taken the Scot three-and-a-half years to achieve it, but 32 trophies later the adoring Mancunian fans have no qualms about the bedding-down period Ferguson was granted.
Admittedly we live in different times, but consider Rafa Benitez's statistics for a second. From joining the club in June 2004 to Boxing Day 2007 - about the same time it took Fergie to win his single FA Cup - Liverpool won three trophies: the European Cup in 2005 was followed by the Uefa Super Cup in the same year, and an FA Cup in 2006, when the Reds dramatically beat West Ham on penalties after one of the greatest finals ever.
Add to this a further Champions League final appearance, in 2007, and the runners-up spot in the Premier League last year - one of the most competitive seasons since the inception of the league - and you'd be questioning the sanity of those fans and sports writers now calling for Benitez's head because Liverpool can only manage sixth place in the league.
But the reality of the Spaniard's predicament is that he has yet to realise the one, burning ambition that drives everyone in the club: to break the 19-year drought since Kenny Dalglish's team lifted the old Football League trophy in 1990. That triumph was the club's 18th league title - a record they held alone until last season when arch-rivals Manchester United joined them on that mark.
Despite coming closer last season than any of the intervening permanent managers (Graeme Souness, Roy Jones and Gerard Houllier), missing out by just four points in a season when they were beaten only twice, Benitez will remain a prisoner of the club's illustrious history until that hoodoo is broken.
Benitez's position has been further undermined by the boardroom battle between the club's two American owners, George Gillett and Tom Hicks.
The pair bought into Liverpool together in February 2007, paying £229m to former chairman David Moores to take on the club and its debt. Since then they have alienated the fanbase with their perceived unwillingness to invest in the club - allowing the move to a 60,000-seater stadium in Stanley Park to stagnate, for example - and have publicly squabbled.
They have also actively unsettled their own manager. Just this week, Gillett gave an interview to a fans' group in which he blamed the Spaniard for the lacklustre start to the season, and in November 2007 the Americans offered Benitez's job to the former German manager Jurgen Klinsmann.
After trying to hawk the club around the Middle East, with Dubai International Capital being a rumoured buyer, Gillett now looks likely to sell his 50 per cent stake to Saudi Prince Faisal, at least removing one obstacle from the manager's path.
Ultimately, though, it will be Benitez's relationship with the Kop that seals his future. Liverpool supporters will never forget the magical night in Istanbul in May 2005 when the team came back from a three-goal deficit at half-time to beat AC Milan to win the club's fifth European Cup, bragging rights they hold supreme in English football.
The wellspring of support generated by his early success at the club has not evaporated. "We love Rafa, although it's slightly tempered by dismay at some of his decisons," an Anfield regular told The First Post, citing his decision this summer to sell Xabi Alonso, a firm favourite of the fans.
"We loved Houllier [Benitez's immediate predecessor] too, but it's more intense for Rafa. The starting point for supporters has always been to offer unconditional love to the team and the manager to spur them on."
With four games in eleven days coming up after the international break - the results of which hold the key to Liverpool's chances of silverware this season - Benitez will need all the support he can get.
Admittedly we live in different times, but consider Rafa Benitez's statistics for a second. From joining the club in June 2004 to Boxing Day 2007 - about the same time it took Fergie to win his single FA Cup - Liverpool won three trophies: the European Cup in 2005 was followed by the Uefa Super Cup in the same year, and an FA Cup in 2006, when the Reds dramatically beat West Ham on penalties after one of the greatest finals ever.
Add to this a further Champions League final appearance, in 2007, and the runners-up spot in the Premier League last year - one of the most competitive seasons since the inception of the league - and you'd be questioning the sanity of those fans and sports writers now calling for Benitez's head because Liverpool can only manage sixth place in the league.
But the reality of the Spaniard's predicament is that he has yet to realise the one, burning ambition that drives everyone in the club: to break the 19-year drought since Kenny Dalglish's team lifted the old Football League trophy in 1990. That triumph was the club's 18th league title - a record they held alone until last season when arch-rivals Manchester United joined them on that mark.
Despite coming closer last season than any of the intervening permanent managers (Graeme Souness, Roy Jones and Gerard Houllier), missing out by just four points in a season when they were beaten only twice, Benitez will remain a prisoner of the club's illustrious history until that hoodoo is broken.
Benitez's position has been further undermined by the boardroom battle between the club's two American owners, George Gillett and Tom Hicks.
The pair bought into Liverpool together in February 2007, paying £229m to former chairman David Moores to take on the club and its debt. Since then they have alienated the fanbase with their perceived unwillingness to invest in the club - allowing the move to a 60,000-seater stadium in Stanley Park to stagnate, for example - and have publicly squabbled.
They have also actively unsettled their own manager. Just this week, Gillett gave an interview to a fans' group in which he blamed the Spaniard for the lacklustre start to the season, and in November 2007 the Americans offered Benitez's job to the former German manager Jurgen Klinsmann.
After trying to hawk the club around the Middle East, with Dubai International Capital being a rumoured buyer, Gillett now looks likely to sell his 50 per cent stake to Saudi Prince Faisal, at least removing one obstacle from the manager's path.
Ultimately, though, it will be Benitez's relationship with the Kop that seals his future. Liverpool supporters will never forget the magical night in Istanbul in May 2005 when the team came back from a three-goal deficit at half-time to beat AC Milan to win the club's fifth European Cup, bragging rights they hold supreme in English football.
The wellspring of support generated by his early success at the club has not evaporated. "We love Rafa, although it's slightly tempered by dismay at some of his decisons," an Anfield regular told The First Post, citing his decision this summer to sell Xabi Alonso, a firm favourite of the fans.
"We loved Houllier [Benitez's immediate predecessor] too, but it's more intense for Rafa. The starting point for supporters has always been to offer unconditional love to the team and the manager to spur them on."
With four games in eleven days coming up after the international break - the results of which hold the key to Liverpool's chances of silverware this season - Benitez will need all the support he can get.
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