26 METROSPORT Wednesday, December 2, 2009 D RAFAEL BEnitEz marked the 50th anniversary of Bill Shanklys appointment as Liverpool manager by admitting he draws inspiration from the great Scot. Yesterday marked half a century since Shankly took over at Anfield and current boss Benitez (pictured) admits he knew little of Shankly when he took over in 2005. But he said: i started reading books about him and made sure that i spoke with a lot of people. i kept reading all those little phrases and sentences [Shankly is famous for]. But i also listened to an old radio interview he did, over and over again. i struggled at first with the accent but once it all became clear, i was really impressed with his ideas. He was so ahead of his time. it would have been an honour to have met him. Benitez said appointing Reds legend Sammy Lee as his assistant manager was partly designed to rediscover the spirit of Shankly. When we decided to bring in Sammy we had someone who knew the philosophy and the ideas of the club, he said. When people talk about the Liverpool way, it was always to win. We try to do this. We try to do things properly, like Shankly. All we can do is our best to make sure the mentality and the passion is always the same. that is the key to making sure the club stays at a good level, the level Bill Shankly wanted it to be at. Lampard: We are more than muscle Stars out but Blues care, insists Ray ASSISTANT boss Ray Wilkins insists Chelsea are desperate to lift the Carling Cup, despite leaving out key men for the quarter-final with Blackburn tonight. Ashley Cole is not likely to play despite shaking off a hamstring problem while Didier Drogba is also expected to sit it out. Frank Lampard, John Terry and Petr Cech could be rested, as they were in the previous round against Bolton. But Wilkins insisted: Wed love to be in the final its one we want to win. FRAnk LAmpARd has rejected suggestions Chelseas success under Carlo Ancelotti has been built purely on strength and good organisation. the Blues head to Blackburn for tonights Carling Cup quarter-final at Ewood park having restored their lead at the top of the premier League to five points following Sundays 3-0 victory at Arsenal. it was a fifth successive league win since being beaten at Aston Villa in October and maintained a 100 per cent record against their traditional top-four rivals this season. much was made of the way Chel- sea out-muscled Arsene Wengers men at the Emirates. However, Lampard said: We went to Arsenal and showed with our performance a bit of everything of what we are about. We kind of oozed that sort of belief in our- selves. We are well organised bec- ause we work very hard on the training ground. But we have got intelligent players, the manager works on tactics and we know that is the base from where we play sometimes that works against us as teams do us a disservice by saying we are just an organised, strong team. Some of the football we play, especially on the counter-attack, is fantastic. We can do both sides of the game when we are at our best we showed that against Arsenal. there is a great spirit, and our two frontmen are as good as anyone in the world at the moment. But Lampard, 31, warned against complacency in the league. it is far too early to be over, he said. We have seen that teams take points off everyone else this season. it is great for us to be in the driving seat but if we take our foot off the pedal and lose a couple of games they close the gap. Powerful: Drogba holds off Arsenals Bacary Sagna but Lampard insists there is more to Chelseas game than strength Picture: Reuters Rafa staying loyal to spirit of Shankly SOCCER CArLing CuPpREmiER lEaguE Expense: Hughes Hughes: Agent fees part of the game MARk HugHeS has defended the vast sums of money Manchester City have spent on agents over the past 12 months. Figures released by the Premier League on Monday placed City top of the table for payments to the much-derided middle men. Their 12,874,283 (14million) made up a substantial portion of the overall outlay of over 70m by englands top flight. The position was expected given the number of players who have both arrived at, and left, eastlands in the past year. And Hughes, whose City side face Arsenal in the their Carling Cup quarter-final tie at eastlands tonight, admitted the outcome was predictable. If you do a lot of deals and overall something like 35 were included given the expenditure and the turnover of players involved, you would expect a figure like that, said the Welshman. There is a role that has to be met and, at the moment, agents fill it. Do they provide value for money? Sometimes you feel the agent has done his job, on others you feel he is getting money for nothing. By mArk CurtiS v1 index.html2.html3.html4.html5.html6.html7.html8.html9.html10.html11.html12.html13.html14.html15.html16.html17.html18.html19.html20.html21.html22.html23.html24.html25.html26.html27.html