On June 16^th 2004, the Liverpool football club board made a bold and slightly unconventional move when they signed Spaniard, Rafael Benitez, to manage their club. In his first season that proved to be an inspired signing as he won the UEFA Champions League. He followed this success with the FA Cup in his second campaign. These two trophies bought him time to build, time to experiment and time to bring back the league title to Anfield. That time has expired - Rafael Benitez should now be sacked!

The performance the Reds served up at the Stadium of Light would have had Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley reaching for a wee dram or ten. It was listless, uninspiring and completely out of character for a club with the pedigree of Liverpool FC.  Credit to Sunderland for making it difficult but please, even without Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres, the Black Cats should be swept aside with ease. It feels like Rafa has lost interest in the Premiership, he's content with the Reds being a cup team and at the end of the day there is a whiff that he's, treading water, just trying to survive and it's not pretty.

For LFC to scale the heights of English football again they must go back to basics, to a time of long sideburns, bad haircuts, T-Rex and the culture of the famed 'boot room'. This is where Liverpool ruled football for twenty-five years and this is where the Merseysiders will find the answers they need. To make things even easier the answers to all their prayers lie right under their noses at Anfield and on this side of the Atlantic.

Owners George Gillette and Tom Hicks need only look towards the Melwood Academy and the stadium that bears one of their names in Foxborough, Mass. for the two men capable of leading the Reds back to the 'promised land' - Kenny Dalglish and Steve Nicol.

For those of you who maybe a little young let me refresh your memories about what these two men brought to LFC.

Before there was Sir Alex Ferguson there was Kenny Dalglish and before there was Roy Keane there was Steve Nicol.

As a player and manager Dalglish won eight League titles, yes EIGHT League titles, three European Cups, yes THREE European Cups, three FA Cups, four League Cups and a cabinet full of assorted trophies, need I go on. 

Nicol was his teammate for four of those League titles while being runners-up another four times. Throw in two of the FA Cups and the European Cup triumph in Rome and surely a picture laden with silverware is beginning to emerge.

These two men are so steeped in the culture of the club that they'll immediately right the most obvious wrong currently swirling around Anfield - namely they'll have the 100% backing of the fans because in my book Rafa has lost them. Secondly they'll instill in the players the passion that made Liverpool the most feared club in the world. Thirdly, only SAF at Old Trafford knows more about winning League titles than Dalglish and Nicol and these men will make that their first priority.

Dalglish is only 58, Nicol a sprightly, feisty 47, both are Scottish and both men have a yearning to be back in the dugout.

Dalglish has said that he walked away from Anfield too soon and that all he needed was a short mental and physical sabbatical away from the game. When you consider what he'd been through, one could hardly blame him. When he did return, it didn't take him long to win another title with Blackburn.

Nicol has said on Fox Football Fone-In that he'd swim back to Liverpool if they offered him the job. After turning water into wine for seven years with the New England Revolution, imagine what he could do with a squad of international players.

I sometimes think that the Premiership and certainly the big clubs get consumed with their own self-importance; they think that only a 'BIG' name could manage their teams. Sometimes though the most obvious answers lies right in front of you and I can guarantee you the following: Kenny Dalglish and Steve Nicol will not rest until they knock Ferguson of his !@#$ perch!

Messrs Hicks and Gillette, heed my words. Pay Benitez off and get two legends of Liverpool FC back to Anfield doing what they've done best throughout their Liverpool careers - win trophies especially League trophies!

Until then, I'll see you at the far post.