Carra slams American owners

Jamie Carragher has sensationally slammed Liverpool's club owners for the lack of support they showed Rafa Benitez. Tom Hicks and George Gillett were reportedly ready to sack the Spaniard in favour of Jurgen Klinsmann.

"I believe he suspected a plan was already in place to sack him and the owners were holding back funds for his replacement," Carragher said in extracts carried in the Daily Mail.

"He was effectively daring the owners to arrange his funeral, especially when Hicks ended the boardroom silence by telling him to shut up on the front page of the local paper.

"It was more than rumour by this stage, and Rafa must have known how close he was to the sack. To my mind, everyone was trying to be too clever, playing politics with little regard for how much damage it was doing.

"Never mind about not washing your dirty linen in public, Anfield was beginning to resemble a launderette."