THERE was a time when Liverpool Football Club got on my nerves. It was pure envy, of course, because I'm talking about the days when Liverpool won everything season after season.

But nothing remains the same in professional football, does it? Throughout the 1990s, Manchester United were the dominant force in English football. More recently they've shared that distinction with Arsenal. Now Chelsea rule the roost.

And somehow Liverpool have been caught in the slip-stream of those three super-powers and been blown aside these past dozen years.

All that old resentment I once harboured for Liverpool has long since turned to sympathy. There is something quite distressing in watching a fallen giant trying to get to his feet only to be knocked back down again.

But things are changing. After Gerard Houllier left last summer, Liverpool brought in Rafael Benitez.

No more than a "bread-and- butter" pro during his playing career, Benitez served as youth team coach at Real Madrid and cut his managerial teeth at Valladolid and Tenerife before winning the UEFA Cup last season at Valencia.

In his first full season in charge at Anfield, Benitez's lack of in-depth knowledge about the Premiership has been obvious. Liverpool lost 14 of 38 games and finished fifth.

But Liverpool made the right choice when they persuaded the thoughtful, quietly-spoken Spaniard to take over at Anfield.

The over-reliance on Steven Gerrard has disappeared since Benitez's arrival. Jamie Carragher has blossomed under his new manager into, arguably, THE most consistent centre-back in the country. Xabi Alonso and Luis Garcia, the two Spanish midfielders bought by Benitez, have had the Anfield faithful drooling. And even the former "joke" figure Djimi Traore has responded to Benitez's promptings.

And if Benitez has taken time to adjust his tactics to the Premiership, he came into his own in the Champions League.

Tonight the Liverpool team which was written off before a ball had been kicked in this season's tournament, have the chance to lay hands on Europe's most prestigious club trophy when they meet the Italian giants AC Milan in the Champions League final.

Liverpool are the underdogs, there is no doubt about that. But who, in his right mind, expected them to beat Juventus and Chelsea?

I'll be rooting for Liverpool tonight. Come on Rafael. Do it for yourself, do it for your club and do it for this country. And take Liverpool back into the Premiership elite next season. English football will be all the better for it, because we've missed you.

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