Hansen: Without Torres & Gerrard there will be no light, only a dark tunnel

Liverpool legend Alan Hansen has painted a pretty bleak picture of Liverpool’s immediate future. He wrote in his column in the Daily Telegraph:

“You could even argue that Liverpool are in their worst state since Bill Shankly arrived at the club more than 50 years ago. You could be looking at three to four years before Liverpool get back to where the club should be. . . The ownership problem will not go away until the club is sold and while the owners want much more for their stake than potential buyers are willing to pay, it is difficult to foresee a speedy resolution. In this day and age, will any prospective buyer not want some return on their investment? Probably not, but all that Liverpool fans can hope for is that whoever buys out Tom Hicks and George Gillett will have the club’s interest at heart and that they won’t use it as a money tool. The only light at the end of the tunnel for Liverpool at the moment is that they still have Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres. Unfortunately, if Gerrard and Torres go, there will be no light and a dark tunnel for Liverpool.”

The former Reds defender also criticised Benitez’s reign at the club:

“Benitez made too many mistakes with too many players. In recent seasons, he hasn’t got any right beyond Fernando Torres, Javier Mascherano and, possibly, Glen Johnson. They were all big-money buys and players of proven quality. Benítez has had money to spend, but when he has bought players in the mid-range market of £3-5 million, they just have not been good enough and that is why Liverpool’s bench has been so poor in recent months. Regardless of the ownership issue, which clearly needs resolving as quickly as possible, Liverpool need rebuilding on the pitch, but if I were in charge at Anfield and I had money to give to the manager, would I give it to Benitez? The answer would be a categorical ‘no’ because he has spent too much money on average players and we are now seeing the fruits of that because Liverpool are a long way short of competing to finish in the top four, never mind fighting to win the big boys’ trophies.”