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Juande Ramos may or may not do better. My suspicion is that Spurs are simply incapable of doing better than fifth, and this whole sordid business will do nothing more than get the nation laughing at Spurs again. Still, the whole idea of managerial vulnerability is an interesting one.
How many bad results can a manager preside over before the vultures start circling? Obviously, there isn't a single answer. It's not a wild exaggeration to say that Sir Alex Ferguson or Arsene Wenger would have to get their clubs relegated before any supporters would seriously call for their dismissal. By contrast, if Gary Megson gets another bad result at the weekend, Bolton fans' already simmering discontent will probably tip over into open revolt.
Of course, the comparison is hardly a fair one - Wenger and Ferguson are club legends, while Megson is a Championship-standard mediocrity with a Premier League record of two seasons, two relegations. But one thing they have in common is that they do not answer to the fans alone.
A few seasons ago, when Sir Alex had flirted with retirement and results started to slide, an unfamiliar 4-5-1 formation stifling their legendary gung-ho approach, no serious United fan would have even considered calling for his head. Yes, a few swivel-eyed idiots on 6-0-6 made a lot of noise, but you simply don't phone up radio phone-ins unless you're a babbling simpleton with an overdeveloped sense of the weight of your own opinions. The press, on the other hand, was filled with tales of "board unrest", "supporter disquiet" and similar vague but damning concerns.
The United board did the right thing in those circumstances - told the press that the job was Ferguson's for life if he wanted it. A few short years later, the pension-age Knight of the Realm won the title for the three hundredth time, and suddenly the press calls for his dismissal went a bit quiet.
Of course, the disparity between what the papers say and what goes on in what passes for football reality is nothing new. In fact the sports section wouldn't be the same without the often-hilarious "rumour mill" columns; utterly ludicrous speculation like Rivaldo-to-Spurs, Mourinho-to-Spurs or Eto'o-to-Spurs keeps us all entertained in the long months between transfer windows. The trick is to learn how to read between the fevered lines - in the whitewater torrent of inanity, what tiny nuggets of sense can we filter out?
Well, as Liverpool fans, one thing we can definitely believe is that neither results nor performances have been what we would like since the first international break of the season. Portsmouth, Marseille, Besiktas, Spurs - even the wins at Everton and at home to Wigan were lucky, referee-assisted robberies rather than emphatic victories over lesser teams. Playing Arsenal, we put on perhaps our best performance since Derby, but were still comprehensively outclassed for long periods and lucky to escape with a home draw.
Another undeniable truth is that the press mutterings have begun already. With Martin "Et Tu Levy" Jol out of the way, Benitez has been installed in some quarters as the favourite in the yearly "sack race". If Sky Sports News is to be believed, one bookies' had him at odds-on not to start next season in charge of Liverpool. This is plainly absurd.
For a start, if Benitez finishes this season in the top four - which he surely will - then, whatever happens in Europe or the cups, the supporters will give him time. You can't throw out a man who's taken you to two Champions League finals in three seasons so lightly, even if many Reds would swap them both for a genuinely close tilt at the title. Also, it should be obvious to any observer that the next man to get fired is going to be Megson, who has already got the rabbit-in-the-headlights look of the comprehensively doomed.
Leaving the hapless Megson aside and concentrating on Benitez, though, it is clear that while rumours of the sack are preposterous, they're not as preposterous as any talk of Wenger or Ferguson being handed their P45s. If either of them were to be fired, the board would be lynched by hordes of maddened fans. Benitez has not, yet, achieved the sort of visceral bond with the fans that those two elder statesmen of the Premier League have.
Why is this? Certainly part of the answer is time. Wenger has had a decade at his club, Ferguson two. Three seasons is a short time to build a dynasty. And while Benitez hasn't won the league, which Wenger managed in his second season, the European and cup results have been spectacular - certainly good enough to buy a few seasons' worth of goodwill. Remember, Fergie's reign was famously saved by the 1990 FA Cup win, four years after he joined the club. Benitez' early results certainly compare with his.
That said, another, perhaps more serious, reason that Benitez hasn't quite captured the fans' hearts is his brand of football. While Wenger and Ferguson play the sort of football that we would all like to - the way we all do on Champ Manager, with fullbacks bombing forward, fluid fast passing and an overall philosophy of we-will-score-more-than-you - Benitez' more regimented, almost cerebral style is harder for us to grasp. His much-maligned rotation system confuses us because we think it makes sense to play our best players in every game; his defensive setups and tendency to utilise the long ball look pragmatic, almost dour, compared to the footballing cavaliers at Old Trafford and the Emirates. One poster on a newspaper website said that whereas other managers go out to emphasise their own strengths, Benitez goes out to neutralise the opponents. In the weary aftermath of a sapping 0-0 or, say, the lucky derby win, I sometimes find myself agreeing.
Of course none of this would matter if the results were coming. For all our looking down our noses at Mourinho's Chelsea and their often joyless approach to football, we would have taken the perspiration-over-inspiration attitude if it brought the League title twice. At the moment, the results aren't coming, and there isn't even the consolation of beautiful football to keep us entertained.
Benitez has spent a lot of money this season. Not the £50 million the press mention - we recouped a lot of money on Bellamy and Cisse - but a lot of money, and the fans want to see instant results. History, however, tells us that new signings take some time to bed in. Whatever happens this season, barring total catastrophe, we owe Benitez more time to put the finishing touches on his project.
That said, the whole idea behind pragmatism is that it gets results. Without results, pragmatism just becomes dull football. And there will come a time, perhaps in a season or two, that it will become fair to judge Benitez on those results - and if he doesn't sweeten the pill with some flair and fire, then those unadorned results had better stand up for themselves.
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