It’s late May in Liverpool. The first reports emerge of a deal being agreed for the club to appoint their new manager, a highly-rated Spaniard who has lifted silverware with his current club just a week earlier. For supporters, it’s an exciting time, with the Reds manager position long-known to be available; the outgoing manager has even had a press conference and photoshoot on the Anfield pitch, so amicable is his departure.
The year, though, is 2004 and the man leaving the Anfield dugout is Gerard Houllier, with Rafael Benitez arriving from Valencia, where he’d won the UEFA Cup and Spanish league title that month.
