Andrew Fifield On the Premier League: It was the morning after the night before, and Rafael Benitez's biggest decision was whether to take one thump or two.
With the headache of a Champions League final defeat to AC Milan still drumming on his brain, the choice was obvious. Down came Benitez's hand, banging on to the table in front of him so hard that the visiting journalists were almost treated to an impromptu Greek plate-smashing party.
Yet Benitez didn't have to use violence to make the crockery rattle in Liverpool's plush Athens hotel six months ago: his words alone would have been enough. Bleary-eyed and grouchy, he spoke of being "tired", of "wasted time" and the "need to change and improve". Above all, he muttered, things had to change "quickly". It was an extraordinarily brazen attack on his unsuspecting employers and, while the headlines that appeared the following morning, suggesting the Spaniard was considering his position, ultimately proved unfounded, May 24th, 2007 may yet be viewed as the day the Rafael Benitez era at Liverpool began to draw to a close.
Ever since, the newly-bearded Benitez - nothing screams "control" louder than carefully-cultivated facial hair, as any movie villain will tell you - has been in a spiky mood, with every move apparently designed to show who is really the boss at Anfield.
Having effectively bullied George Gillette and Tom Hicks, the club's new owners, into sanctioning the €37 million signing of Fernando Torres, he duly refused to guarantee him a starting place, while poor Peter Crouch has been given so many cold shoulders he has to be thawed out before making his occasional forays off the bench. Even Steven Gerrard, the patron saint of red-blooded scousers, has not been safe: Benitez hauled off his captain in the Merseyside derby, of all games, sparking the biggest show of dissent from the stands since he took charge in 2004. Only the pitiful performance of Mark Clattenburg, the referee that day, saved him from a potentially uncomfortable inquest.
Benitez's verbal volley in Athens came as a shock. The Castillian prides himself on being unknowable: he keeps his distance from his players, with Gerrard once observing it was his career ambition to receive a message of congratulation from his manager, and has never granted a one-on-one interview with an English reporter.
But while his public statements have reverted to tedious type this season, his gestures - the team selections, substitutions and body language - can only be interpreted as a direct challenge to Liverpool's power-brokers. The question now is who will blink first? Benitez is used to playing these sorts of political games. He fermented a similar atmosphere of unrest at his previous club, Valencia, where he was in open conflict with the sporting director and, eventually, a board he considered to lack his own ambition. When Liverpool came calling in the wake of Gerrard Houllier's departure, Benitez could not escape Spain quickly enough.
The 47-year-old is similarly discomfited now, but before he makes any further attempt to assert his authority, he should take heed. At Valencia, his astonishing record - in the Primera Liga and in Europe - made him that rarest of creatures in Spanish football: a manager who did not have to fear his president. At Liverpool, too, his standing has generally been rock-solid. Fans have become drunk on their success in the Champions League and, in the wake of delivering a second final appearance in three years, he could probably have bad-mouthed Bill Shankly, John Lennon and Cilla Black in the same sentence and got away with it.
But no longer. Supporters are growing weary of being unable to second-guess Benitez's line-ups and his erratic decision-making has led to internet message-boards being stretched to crashing point. Liverpool have been booed off regularly at home this season, while Dirk Kuyt, a Benitez favourite, was savaged by the travelling contingent at Blackburn 10 days ago. The reserves of goodwill are not yet empty, but it was telling Hicks recently felt sufficiently emboldened to demand the Premier title from his manager at the end of the season. It goes without saying the American would never have dared issue such an ultimatum in Athens.
Benitez has been lucky. Since that chastening night at Ewood Park, his team have been able to feast on feeble opposition, scoring 10 unanswered goals. Those romps have banished talk of a crisis, for now, but nobody is fooled: the power base has shifted at Anfield and the previously untouchable Benitez might just have picked a fight he cannot hope to win.
