YANKS TO BENITEZ: SHUT UP AND COACH

An interesting thing has happened in Liverpool this week, and it looks like the marriage of Benitez, Parry and Gillette/Hicks is entering some tough times. The gauntlet has been thrown down by Benitez to his Yank owners that the time for signing players in the transfer market is now, and not a week before Christmas. Benitez seems to be callinng out his American employers, which is a stunning development, given they have spent already $100M on players this year alone.

While Torres seems to be a sure thing, the other major signings in Benayoun and Babel have been tame by comparison - even before his injury, Benayoun seemed more like a player adjusting to a league he has already played (his hat trick against Fenerbache notwithstanding). Babel for his part is still adjusting, and is probably at least a year away from being a real impact player.

The truth is that Liverpool have underachieved - there is no way that with the turmoil at Chelski, and the derth of quality players at Man City, they ought to be behind either of those teams. True, they have a game in hand on each of them, but so does Arsenal, and they're 4-5 points clear of that lot, so what's Liverpool's excuse? None that I can see. There's no excuse for the points they've dropped, both in the EPL and now this underachieving seems to have spilled over into the UCL losing at home to Marseille, and dropping points in Turkey to a team they would go on to drill for 8 two weeks later.

They simply can't get results when they need them, and it's costing them a chance at both titles months before the hard part of the season gets underway. Droppping points to Portsmouth, Blackburn, Birmingham and Tottenham (on their current form) is just unacceptable - I guarantee that no other team in the "big 4" would ever drop points to each of the same lot. And this is the difference between Liverpool and teams that have actually won the EPL in the last 10 years.

People keep pointing to big matches like Man U, Chelski and Arsenal, but the fact is that all 3 of those teams drop points against each other every year - the key is picking up what should be AUTOMATIC points. This is where the season is won or lost, and this has been Benitez's undoing this year, and in fact, every year he's been at Liverpool. When you have a crap team in front of you, the worst thing you can do is take your foot off the pedal - and this is precisely what Liverpool do every other time they play against a second-rate team. There's something about having quality men step up to the brutal responsibility of punishing the weak, but unfortuantely at Liverpool, it seems that responsibility is not a word in the vocabulary of most.

So why would Benitez go on a rampage about transfers and money when he seems to be sitting on a pile of talent? Maybe because he needs a ready-made excuse for when the wheels come off in the spring? Maybe not.

The bottom line is that money talks in soccer, and if you believe in your manager, you give him money to spend even when times are tough. So Benitez is clearly sensing a lack of confidence in that they have not given him an AMEX Platinum card to go and buy players. A vote of confidence, like the one Sam Allardyce just received from the board at Newcastle is the sporting equivalent of Michael's kiss on the mouth to Fredo. Thankfully, Benitez hasn't received that yet. But why would anyone expect the owners to open up their wallet to a man who has one of the most expensive team's in England, and only a solitary Champions League and FA Cup to show for it?

From the Yanks' perspective, why would they give him money to piss away another EPL season if they're already dumped out of the EPL and the UCL by December 16th? Why not keep the funds in abeyance until he can prove that it wouldn't be wasted, or even better for a new manager in the summer? What quality player worth buying is going to come to Liverpool if there are no Champion's League games to play anyway? There are some big name players who have already appeared for their teams in the UCL, but are they like targets at Liverpool? I doubt it.

So Benitez, seeing the writing on the wall, and probably feeling the pressure to get a result on Wednesday against Porto and on December 16th against Manchester United, has expertly deflected the attention back on the Americans by claiming they don't know the market, and need to start looking. But you don't become a billionaire by accident, and they're not dumb enough to waste their hard earned money on a guy who can't deliver - so they're waiting to see if he can.

At the end of the day, both have played this by the book but my objection is that neither should have made any public comments at all. If I'm the owner, I really don't care what anyone thinks of me - when the time comes to spend, I'll spend, and all the fans who question my committment as an owner will forget their issues when the next big name player comes to town. And if I'm Benitez, you're not doing yourself any favors with American owners who likely value loyalty and workmanship above all else - all else except the dollar, of course.

The bottom line is that it's in everyone's interest to shut up and do your job - Benitez needs to find a way to unleash his players who all appear tentative and afraid to make mistakes, with the exception of Gerrard and Carragher who seem to be untouchable. It's true that if he doesn't have the money ahead of time, no player will commit to come in January, but has he earned that money yet? Only Tottenham and Newcastle spend as much for so little as Liverpool, and look what that's gotten them. A nice hot cup of jack squat.

Parry and Gillette/Hicks should not be responding to petulant comments in the press - when the time comes to spend, they should spend, until then, the less heard from the owner the better. All this does is create an atmosphere of uncertainty that only adds to the players' angst, and will do nothing to help them through the UCL fixtures coming up and they EPL games through holiday season. If Liverpool drop any more points between now and February they can kiss the EPL goodbye.

The players need to get ready for the 2 biggest games of the season - Wednsday and Sunday. A loss in either, and the whole enterprise starts looking like a huge waste of time for everyone involved.