I thought my mate was winding me up when he told me that Blackpool had beaten Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday.
Liverpool have had major problems, but that was a new low and Martin Broughton, their chairman, was right to admit that the club is in crisis on and off the field. Or was it their chairman? They seem to have so many different people claiming to run or own the club at the moment that I'm getting confused.
Despite their obvious difficulties I am surprised at how poorly they have started the season. The fans are up in arms and blaming George Gillett and Tom Hicks, the owners, but I could see some of the football issues coming. Rafa Benitez bought too many average players and got out before he was found out. Alberto Aquilani cost £20 million (Dh116.4m) from Roma and was a massive flop. That wasn't the owners' fault was it?
Benitez spent more than Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United and while he may have won the Champions League in his first season, he never finished higher than second in the league, never came close to bringing Liverpool a first league title since 1990. His tactics baffled me too. The attacking pass-and-move spirit which was written in Liverpool's DNA was not for him. Instead he went for a defensive and inflexible system.
The current team at Anfield is not in the same bracket as the Liverpool sides which I played against. Facing Liverpool was always a really tough match home or away. While United only won 3-2 at Old Trafford recently, Ferguson was right in saying that the scoreline flattered Liverpool. Results have got worse for them since, with defeats to Northampton Town, in the Carling Cup, and Blackpool. Liverpool are in the relegation zone. Repeat that last line if you don't believe it, because it's true.
And yet, while I don't think they will go down, they are a very average side without Fernando Torres, Pepe Reina and Steven Gerrard. I couldn't blame any of them for leaving, especially Gerrard, though he seems like a one-club man playing for his local team and I respect him for that. I also respect him for turning down more money at Chelsea and Real Madrid. He is a world class player all right, but the team around him is caving in.
Liverpool look short of confidence, but I think Roy Hodgson, Benitez's replacement, will turn it around when there is a bit more stability behind the scenes. He is a good man and good manager. He needs time - six months at least - to make his mark at the club, to see what is happening at the training ground and with the staff. To see who he can trust and work with and who is best leaving. He worked wonders on a budget at Fulham, but it is not easy for him when the fans are up in arms protesting every week.
Players don't care who owns the club, but the atmosphere is affecting a team short of confidence. Fans calling for him to be sacked and replaced by Kenny Dalglish are wide of the mark because Kenny would need time like any new manager. Jamie Carragher was right to say they have an average first season when a new boss comes in and it's not Liverpool's style to chop and change like Real Madrid. Hodgson had bought well too - much better than Benitez.
Joe Cole, the England midfielder, should come good with more games and confidence. Liverpool are not the best defensively but Christian Poulson, the Danish midfielder, was a solid, experienced signing from Juventus. I would say exactly the same about Raul Meireles from Porto, but both players have walked into a firestorm centred around the hated owners. Liverpool need another centre forward to play up with Torres or even in place of him because he's often injured.
David N'Gog is one for the future, he's only 21. It would be like United starting Federico Macheda up front by himself every week. A sale for Liverpool has been agreed, but that may take some time to come through and for the club's chaotic finances to be sorted so that funds can be released to buy players. Liverpool fans also need to lower their expectations for the next few years because the economics of football have changed.
They need a new stadium, whereas their main domestic rivals don't. They will also start to suffer because top players won't want to play at a team not in the Champions League. Liverpool need stability behind the scenes after the chaos under the Gillett-Hicks ownership. They appear to have been sold to a new American backer, but the former owners are objecting to the sale. It is a mess that needs sorting, because Liverpool will struggle to recover with so many distractions in the background.
