Transfers - Gossip Shop: Benitez 'denies' Madrid link

uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/16022009/58/transfers-gossip-shop-benitez-denies-madrid-link.html

Eurosport - Mon, 16 Feb 12:41:00 2009 Reda Maher

This column would like to thank Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez for making its life a lot easier with his continued, perplexing statements.

Benitez's outbursts are becoming painfully frequent, and while his latest comments lack the paranoiac attempts from previous mind games they are no less loaded, provocative and downright counter-productive.

This time he is making the dangerous play of toying with the caveat as he flirts with bloodthirsty Spanish giants Real Madrid.

"If I say that Real Madrid would be the icing on the cake for my career, people will say I want to leave Liverpool," Benitez said. "If I say it would not be, then it looks like I am showing a lack of respect to Madrid.

"The right thing to say, and the truth, is that I am not thinking about leaving and I hope to be here for a long time.

"But, of course, Real Madrid would be the perfect ending to anyone's career although my career is not coming to an end yet."

Wow. Like a little game of 'just the tip', he's in, he's out, he's in again, then he's somewhere else altogether.

That place is unlikely to be Madrid, though. Since Juande Ramos took over in December, Real have taken 24 out of 27 possible Liga points and only conceded three goals, two of which came in their sole defeat - Ramos's first match against runaway leaders Barcelona.

Even by Los Merengues' warped standards, that has to be worth a second season?

Reds fans should not worry, assuming that they have forgiven Rafa for outburst-gate and actually want him to stay at the club.

Taken in the context of the wider interview - where he scolded Liverpool's owners for neither offering him a long-term deal nor allowing him to secure the futures of his dozen or so assistants - it is a clear attempt to force a reaction from Tom Hicks and George Gillet.

Given recent reactions from Premier League club owners, however, a panic-sacking is more likely than a contract offer.

Stewart Downing submitted a transfer request to try and force a move to Tottenham in January but boss Gareth Southgate is convinced he will stay on Teesside.

"He's never been a problem for us," Southgate said. "His attitude to things is great and he's a Middlesbrough lad who wants Middlesbrough to do well. He's as frustrated as everyone is that we haven't been able to match other clubs in the transfer market but that is the reality of the situation we have.

"His determination is to make sure we come out of the spell we've had."

Everton's 17-year-old goal-scoring hero Jack Rodwell has been the subject of an ongoing internet prank, where jokers repeatedly change his Wikipedia profile to say that he was born in Brazil in tribute to an 'error' on Football Manager a few years back.

Rodwell has caught the eye of Arsenal, but boss David Moyes has offered the Merseyside-born academy product a five-year contract to fend-off Arsene Wenger's advances.

In one of the more unusual transfer rumours in recent years, Russian champions Rubin Kazan - home of Spurs flop Sergei Rebrov - are reported to be preparing a £2 million bid for speedy Rangers striker Kenny Miller.

Former Celtic, Wolves and Derby man Miller is affectionately known as 'Barn Door' in the GS office and was particularly rubbish in the Old Firm bore-draw at the weekend.

One miss in particular - when he almost hit the corner flag from eight yards out - provided further evidence to the theory that Scottish league football is just monkey tennis with a proud enough history to keep the turnstiles swinging.

The last over-rated Scot to ply his trade in Russia was Garry O'Connor, who lasted a season at Locomotiv Moscow, and scored around one in five. Miller has a similar goal-scoring ratio from his previous clubs so expect a similar return if he does go East.