Rome wasn't built in a day

By Chris O'Keefe

Modern football is littered with impatience. That's my theory anyway. And the impatience is getting...well more impatient.

The managerial merry-go-round seems to start earlier these days. If a manager has a bad couple of weeks then he's on thin ice or three straight wins and he's up on a pedestal with Shankly, Paisley, Busby and Sir Alex. Yet, in a country where queuing is seen as a British trait, our managers are given the third before they've put the family photo on the desk.

Liverpool manager, Rafael Benitez, has been at Anfield a total of 108 days. Yet in the two weeks between the defeat at Chelsea and victory at Fulham, it's been all talk of poor play and in particular "zonal marking." Benitez must laugh into his paella when he gets home. Nothing is won in October. If anyone thought the Spaniard - who by the way has achieved success in the first term at his three clubs - was going to get Liverpool playing the kind of football Arsenal were playing last season, they may require a doctor.

Arsene Wenger, had to endure seasons conceding the title Manchester United as early as March! Only two seasons ago they threw away a seemingly unassailable lead. There have been good signs. Some of the football has been very neat and pleasing on the eye. Sure, there are things to work on but Liverpool have been a work in progress for some time.

To paraphrase a famous advert for lager, “Stop, what are you doing this team is not ready yet!"