There are few things more irritating to any non-Liverpool fan than hearing Mr Benitez bleat on about how his side are mistreated by the FA, Premier League, Referees or anyone else who may have come between them and a thoroughly deserved victory.

However, hearing managers expostulate on how ‘they was robbed’ by a poorly timed offside flag is an acceptable hazard in the modern game during post-match words, and Rafa does it with such verve that he puts Fergie and Arsene to shame on occasion.

While this may annoy those who do not reside in the kop, we can accept it, for the most part. Sadly, it becomes all the more difficult to listen to half of Merseyside’s second favourite Spaniard when he decides it is the right time to tell the world that he will sign your club’s star player.

Few will disagree that the ongoing Gareth Barry saga is making the player himself look disloyal and Benitez unprofessional, while curiously giving Villa and their manager an aura of power where previously the club may have crumbled in the face of Rafa’s words and been forced to sell their captain.

It seems that Benitez is, as yet, not finished with his outspoken transfer policy and is attempting to dislodge Robbie Keane from Spurs in a similar manner. It’s just not cricket, or football really for that matter.

After last season’s protracted ownership debacle and the resultant media revelations about other managers still fresh in the memory, Rafa should know from his own personal experience just how unsettling words to the media can be, but will the bearded one listen? I think not.

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