It is amazing how quickly ambitions recede and goals diminish. Liverpool, title contenders at the season’s start, are now faced with the challenge of trying to qualify for the Europa League next season. Not exactly dignified.
The Europa League, like methadone, may only be a pallid substitute but it’s better than nothing. Starting with Burnley on Sunday afternoon, Rafael Benítez knows his side must secure qualification via the league or be faced with the task of winning the thing just to be able to take part in European competition next season.
Liverpool are four points clear of Everton in seventh – all that is needed for Europa qualification after Portsmouth’s exclusion was upheld – but have to play Chelsea next week.
“It’s always important to be in the Champions League or the Europa League, both for the image of the club and for the money,” Benítez said.
“Yes, the image would suffer if we missed out on the Europa League, but sometimes you never know what is best. We will try to win the competition, try to be there and if not, we will get ready for the next challenge.”
The image of the club. That’s a pretty tough thing to define at the moment. In their current state, Liverpool are a provisional club. Even the short-term future is obscure. We don’t know who will own the club, who will manage it or who will be playing for it.
As those three factors are interdependent the picture will only become clearer if there is a radical change. This is a club at the end of a cycle and this season’s last four (or five if they reach the Europa League final in Hamburg) fixtures are the anticlimactic endgame. Or that’s what you must hope.
The worst-case scenario for Liverpool is that an overly optimistic valuation of the club, by Tom Hicks in particular, will deter investors and force the club to limp into another campaign without the means to compete.
Benítez has made it clear he needs four or more high-quality players. If he doesn’t get that investment the “next challenge” he spoke of will be another club.
Juventus clearly want Benítez to be their next manager. In many ways they are Liverpool’s Italian echo: the nation’s most successful club fallen out of their domestic elite and facing the commercial desert of exile from the Champions League. Unlike Liverpool, though, Juventus have money to invest and Benítez might see it as the best venue to rehabilitate a damaged reputation.
What consequences Benitez’s departure would have on the playing staff is intriguing. Roberto Mancini made the mistake of publicly declaring his admiration for Fernando Torres last week – that’s a long way from any sort of deal being done. Torres is a year into a four-year contract, which he signed last summer, and there has been no formal approach from Manchester City. It would take a degree of agitation on Torres’s part if he were to leave – perhaps Benitez’s departure would provoke that.
The case of Javier Mascherano is also interesting. The Argentina captain has been close to signing a new contract for some time now but it has somewhat curiously stalled again. Bets being hedged? “We were very close but I don’t know if there are changes,” Benítez said. “I don’t know if something has changed since the last time I was talking to him, which was maybe three or four days ago. I still expect him to sign. He is happy so hopefully he can stay.”
Even Liverpool’s transfer plans have been put into stasis. “The priority now is to prepare the team properly for our next game and then we will have plenty of time to prepare transfers,” Benítez said. Everyone is waiting for something to happen.
In the short term, Benítez has the task of lifting his drained players for Sunday’s game. After their long haul to Madrid via planes, trains and automobiles and their sapping defeat in the Vicente Calderón once they finally got there, it will not be easy to restore the freshness to this team. “They will be a little bit tired but that happens sometimes,” Benítez said. “We will work very hard with them, the medical staff, the fitness coaches, everyone is working very hard to recover the players quickly.” Just a few more games to go. Then, finally, the clouds over Liverpool should begin to part.
The Europa League, like methadone, may only be a pallid substitute but it’s better than nothing. Starting with Burnley on Sunday afternoon, Rafael Benítez knows his side must secure qualification via the league or be faced with the task of winning the thing just to be able to take part in European competition next season.
Liverpool are four points clear of Everton in seventh – all that is needed for Europa qualification after Portsmouth’s exclusion was upheld – but have to play Chelsea next week.
“It’s always important to be in the Champions League or the Europa League, both for the image of the club and for the money,” Benítez said.
“Yes, the image would suffer if we missed out on the Europa League, but sometimes you never know what is best. We will try to win the competition, try to be there and if not, we will get ready for the next challenge.”
The image of the club. That’s a pretty tough thing to define at the moment. In their current state, Liverpool are a provisional club. Even the short-term future is obscure. We don’t know who will own the club, who will manage it or who will be playing for it.
As those three factors are interdependent the picture will only become clearer if there is a radical change. This is a club at the end of a cycle and this season’s last four (or five if they reach the Europa League final in Hamburg) fixtures are the anticlimactic endgame. Or that’s what you must hope.
The worst-case scenario for Liverpool is that an overly optimistic valuation of the club, by Tom Hicks in particular, will deter investors and force the club to limp into another campaign without the means to compete.
Benítez has made it clear he needs four or more high-quality players. If he doesn’t get that investment the “next challenge” he spoke of will be another club.
Juventus clearly want Benítez to be their next manager. In many ways they are Liverpool’s Italian echo: the nation’s most successful club fallen out of their domestic elite and facing the commercial desert of exile from the Champions League. Unlike Liverpool, though, Juventus have money to invest and Benítez might see it as the best venue to rehabilitate a damaged reputation.
What consequences Benitez’s departure would have on the playing staff is intriguing. Roberto Mancini made the mistake of publicly declaring his admiration for Fernando Torres last week – that’s a long way from any sort of deal being done. Torres is a year into a four-year contract, which he signed last summer, and there has been no formal approach from Manchester City. It would take a degree of agitation on Torres’s part if he were to leave – perhaps Benitez’s departure would provoke that.
The case of Javier Mascherano is also interesting. The Argentina captain has been close to signing a new contract for some time now but it has somewhat curiously stalled again. Bets being hedged? “We were very close but I don’t know if there are changes,” Benítez said. “I don’t know if something has changed since the last time I was talking to him, which was maybe three or four days ago. I still expect him to sign. He is happy so hopefully he can stay.”
Even Liverpool’s transfer plans have been put into stasis. “The priority now is to prepare the team properly for our next game and then we will have plenty of time to prepare transfers,” Benítez said. Everyone is waiting for something to happen.
In the short term, Benítez has the task of lifting his drained players for Sunday’s game. After their long haul to Madrid via planes, trains and automobiles and their sapping defeat in the Vicente Calderón once they finally got there, it will not be easy to restore the freshness to this team. “They will be a little bit tired but that happens sometimes,” Benítez said. “We will work very hard with them, the medical staff, the fitness coaches, everyone is working very hard to recover the players quickly.” Just a few more games to go. Then, finally, the clouds over Liverpool should begin to part.
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