The photo above is a little bit spooky.... the framed photo usually use in funeral parlour or at graveyard... but Rafa is not dead yet! He is alive and kicking! WE as the loyal fan of LIVERPOOL will stand with you! SALUTE ! SALUTE ! SALUTE ! .
Demo shows why game is Kop religion
Oliver Holt Chief Sports Writer 29/11/2007 The Daily Mirror
Oliver Holt Chief Sports Writer 29/11/2007 The Daily Mirror
The supporters held a picture of Rafael Benitez aloft at the head of the demonstration, and bore it through the streets around Anfield in its gilt frame.
Young and old, they chanted the name of their manager and listened to echoes coming back to them in the darkness from the pockets of fans making their way to the game.
Benitez looked young in the photograph. As if his features had been made smooth and perfect.
It was as if a religious icon was being carried high for the people to see on a holy day.
It looked like an image of Benitez as a saint. Or a martyr.
Nobody quite knows which yet. Last night's result against a clever, neat, skilful Porto team might have left Liverpool in grave danger of failing to make it to the second round of the Champions League.
But the emotional victory they gained made it seem stranger still that a man who won the Champions League for this great club in his first season here and took them to the final again last season should suddenly find his position under threat.
And while the couple of thousand supporters who gathered outside the Sandon pub near the ground took care not to chant their opposition to American owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett, they made it very clear where they loyalties lay.
"You are Custodians," one sign taped to the wall of the pub said, "but the club's ours. Rafa Stays."
As the procession moved off towards the stadium, the demonstrators began to sing the strains of Ring of Fire - the Johnny Cash anthem that will forever be associated with the Miracle of Istanbul.
It was a touching show of support for a man they don't want to lose. "It wasn't even like this when Shankly left," Phil McKeown said, as he stood with his son.
Bill Shankly's departure back in 1974 left the city in shock and this demonstration's message was that Liverpudlians are not prepared to let another legend just slip away.
That the relationship between Benitez and the owners had degenerated before last night's crucial match with Porto into a state of open civil war was a matter for profound regret, rather than anger.
If there is a sense that Benitez has overplayed his hand a little with his relentless complaints about not being given enough money for transfers, there is also a feeling that he deserves far, far better than to be drummed out of the club for such a petty misdemeanour.
Consider some of the memories he has given these fans in his three and a half years in charge. Consider the memories he has given Hicks and Gillett (left).
After Liverpool and their cathedral choir on the Kop overcame Chelsea in last season's Champions League semi-final second leg, Gillett stood open-mouthed on the front row of the directors' box.
"In all my time in sport," he said, "I have never, ever experienced anything like that."
And despite this season's troubled Champions League campaign, Benitez is still moving Liverpool forward with manic and obsessive restlessness.
He has been helped in that task by the £20m-plus that the owners allowed him to spend on prestige captures like Fernando Torres, Yossi Benayoun and Ryan Babel in the summer.
And his track record entitles him to demand further backing from the Americans for the January transfer window.
Liverpool fans feel he has a connection with them.
"We may not agree with some player selections or tactics," a leaflet distributed by one supporters' group at the march said, "but this man is the nearest we are ever going to get to Shanks or Sir Bob."
Young and old, they chanted the name of their manager and listened to echoes coming back to them in the darkness from the pockets of fans making their way to the game.
Benitez looked young in the photograph. As if his features had been made smooth and perfect.
It was as if a religious icon was being carried high for the people to see on a holy day.
It looked like an image of Benitez as a saint. Or a martyr.
Nobody quite knows which yet. Last night's result against a clever, neat, skilful Porto team might have left Liverpool in grave danger of failing to make it to the second round of the Champions League.
But the emotional victory they gained made it seem stranger still that a man who won the Champions League for this great club in his first season here and took them to the final again last season should suddenly find his position under threat.
And while the couple of thousand supporters who gathered outside the Sandon pub near the ground took care not to chant their opposition to American owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett, they made it very clear where they loyalties lay.
"You are Custodians," one sign taped to the wall of the pub said, "but the club's ours. Rafa Stays."
As the procession moved off towards the stadium, the demonstrators began to sing the strains of Ring of Fire - the Johnny Cash anthem that will forever be associated with the Miracle of Istanbul.
It was a touching show of support for a man they don't want to lose. "It wasn't even like this when Shankly left," Phil McKeown said, as he stood with his son.
Bill Shankly's departure back in 1974 left the city in shock and this demonstration's message was that Liverpudlians are not prepared to let another legend just slip away.
That the relationship between Benitez and the owners had degenerated before last night's crucial match with Porto into a state of open civil war was a matter for profound regret, rather than anger.
If there is a sense that Benitez has overplayed his hand a little with his relentless complaints about not being given enough money for transfers, there is also a feeling that he deserves far, far better than to be drummed out of the club for such a petty misdemeanour.
Consider some of the memories he has given these fans in his three and a half years in charge. Consider the memories he has given Hicks and Gillett (left).
After Liverpool and their cathedral choir on the Kop overcame Chelsea in last season's Champions League semi-final second leg, Gillett stood open-mouthed on the front row of the directors' box.
"In all my time in sport," he said, "I have never, ever experienced anything like that."
And despite this season's troubled Champions League campaign, Benitez is still moving Liverpool forward with manic and obsessive restlessness.
He has been helped in that task by the £20m-plus that the owners allowed him to spend on prestige captures like Fernando Torres, Yossi Benayoun and Ryan Babel in the summer.
And his track record entitles him to demand further backing from the Americans for the January transfer window.
Liverpool fans feel he has a connection with them.
"We may not agree with some player selections or tactics," a leaflet distributed by one supporters' group at the march said, "but this man is the nearest we are ever going to get to Shanks or Sir Bob."
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