Manager of the Season: Rafa Benitez

So another Premiership season draws to a close and the snipers are out yet again at what is being described in some quarters as a lucky and poor season for Liverpool FC.

No better off than last season some people say, boring and defensive the others, the list goes on. But a closer look actually tells a different story.

Liverpool have reached two finals, one of them in the most prestigious competition in Europe and look like finishing fifth in the Premiership. This despite losing one of England's top strikers in the summer and his replacement being ruled out for most of the season with a broken leg, his understudy (Milan Baros) being plagued by hamstring injuries for most of the early part of the season but being forced to play due to our chronic lack of other strikers as pie-eater Mellor and Florent 'Craig David' Pongolle have also been ruled out for long periods.

Leeds managing to swindle the club by selling us Harry Kewell's idiot twin brother who has about a tenth of the talent and an even worse haircut, our star midfielder ruled out for three months due to fat Frank Lampard's half-arsed challenge on New Year's Day, a complete flapper in goal in Jerzy Dudek and last but not least having to field week in, week out a circus clown otherwise known as Djimi Traore at left-back who can’t pass more than two yards without giving the ball away and whose legs are that f*****g long that he ties himself in knots by trying to do a Cruyff turn on his own goal-line.

Benitez has worked miracles as far as I’m concerned - £20 million worth of Houllier's dross is currently out on loan due to their shear inability to do anything of note on a football field apart from run around like headless chickens (Diouf/Diao/Cheyrou) and Benitez has even managed to make Biscan look like a footballer, which to most people was an impossible task. Granted he hasn’t managed to do anything with Smicer yet but let’s be honest, who fucking could?

Roll on next year when the real 'Special One' has shipped out the rubbish and brought in the players to make Liverpool a real force again and shown all the snipers that reaching the European final was no fluke and just a sign of things to come.