SAY what you like about Old Red Nose down the East Lancs Road, but there’s no doubt that he’s second only to Derren Brown when it comes to playing mind games.

His publicly voiced query as to whether Liverpool had the nerve to maintain a title challenge certainly seems to have struck a chord which has hummed away at the back of the players’ minds in recent games.

The inability to kill off teams who set up defensive road blocks is now developing into a fully blown phobia, and the strain is beginning to show.

Of course it doesn’t help when our own manager not only fans the flames of nascent paranoia, but practically pours lighter fuel on them with ill-considered comments which lend credence to Fergie’s taunts.

Perhaps made irascible by his troublesome kidney stones, Benitez has been quick to react to any perceived injustice in recent weeks when previously he might have kept his own counsel, or searched for a diplomatic or humorous put-down of his would-be tormentors.

His attack on Ferguson’s apparent invulnerability to FA sanction might have drawn some wry smiles but for the manner in which he delivered it, waving a prepared list of unpunished transgressions which brought back images of Mourinho’s absurd dossier on Arsene Wenger’s alleged ‘voyeurism’.

No sooner had this one run its course in the papers, than Rafa again hit the headlines, keen to explain the reasons why he was rejecting his new contract.

Why he felt the need to do this in public I can’t fathom, and he didn’t make the best job of explaining his concerns either.

He acknowledged his responsibility to stay within a pre-determined transfer and wages budget, but seemed to resent having to justify his decisions to his chief executive, Rick Parry.

While I’m not going to leap to Mr Parry’s defence here, what’s so unusual about having a boss?