Rafa Benitez has sensibly laid down the law with regards to his red boys’ sleeping patterns; he doesn’t want any secret late-night viewing sessions of the Hatton-Mayweather fight, and The Times reports that Rafa could be again accused of “megalomania”. Rafa said:
“We try to control these things…After the game the players will have dinner and we take care of these things. Some players need more time than others, but it’s really important to rest, especially in this situation, where we are playing late away and then away again soon after. I don’t think the players will be staying up to watch the fight. Anyway, they have DVDs.”
With the Hatton-Mayweather fight being beamed into TVs in the early hours of Sunday, Rafa is determined to stop any players staying up late and buggering up their sleeping patterns before a massively important Champions League outing away to Marseilles. Times journo Oliver Kay reports that this is by no means the first time that Rafa has exerted his authority of the minutiae of Liverpool players lives with Kay writing that Rafa was the man
“who upset his players at Valencia by banning paella, ice cream and olives from the canteen at the training ground.”
So Rafa is right to insist that his players don’t stay up until the wee hours to watch a boxing match, isn’t he? In fact, should this even have to be highlighted at all, the players themselves must be aware of how big this game is?