Benitez captures Anfield tradition

May 3 2007 Red Watch by Andy Proudfoot, Liverpool Daily Post

He clearly shares our passion, commitment and pride in the club, but allies it to a cold and calculating mind which enables him to take hard decisions and remain calm while all about him are losing their marbles, rationality and voices.

He’s one of us, but thankfully he’s working while we’re pumping out raw emotion.

The contrast between the Liverpool fans and manager, and their Chelsea counterparts, could not have been more marked over the two games.

The passionate, spontaneous eruption of emotion from the Anfield crowd shamed the calculated attempts at cheerleading on display at Stamford Bridge a week ago; the uninspired chants of the Chelsea supporters betrayed the lack of wit and originality which comes from having a rich heritage on which to draw.

Surely now also, the tiresome rantings of Jose Mourinho have reached the point where they are no longer amusing or enigmatic to even the most quote-hungry hack; his questioning of Liverpool’s place in the history of the game and the suggestion that we would ‘hunt down’ Drogba to get him booked drew a stinging riposte even from Alex Ferguson, an unlikely source of defence if ever there was one.

I’m afraid that the Chelsea manager, like Benitez, is coming to represent his club; but in Mourinho’s case, it’s a lack of class, humility and a sense of history which is coming to the fore.