After almost six years at the helm, we should not have to staff a bench of the quality we fielded against Atletico Madrid, even with several players injured or unavailable. By and large the players Rafa has recruited have been sub-standard, only a handful having justified their acquisition. A succession of foreign wingers and full-backs have passed through the Anfield entrance and exit gates, their only contribution to swell the squad available to those idly seeking to select a ‘worst Liverpool XI’ on long away trips.

And don’t give me the ‘lack of funds’ or ‘net spend’ arguments; if you spend £10m on a player and then have to sell him for £8m because he’s no good, you haven’t just had £2m to spend – you’ve wasted the time it took to realise he couldn’t cut it and the £10m you could have spent on someone else.

The quandary for the Liverpool board is now one of timing.

Should Benitez leave, the club will be in limbo until new owners are in place and funds can be made available to attract a manager of suitable quality, and indeed better players; if he doesn’t, we may end up handing Rafa more money to waste.

And Martin Broughton thought running British Airways was hard.