Over the past few weeks Liverpool have given off all the signs of a club in crisis.
Not the heading-for-administration-and-quite-possibly-out-of-existence sort of crisis that plagues lower league clubs.
No, that would be far too working class for a Premier League team of Liverpool's stature. Instead they have opted for a more white collar sort of problem - an ownership crisis.
On Friday, worries of imminent financial meltdown were averted when current owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett secured £350 million of new financing for the club.
The new deal covers what they paid for the club, the loans they took out to buy players last summer and enough cash to get the new stadium started.
For the Americans it signifies a new lease of life - without the package in place it was looking increasingly like they were going to be forced to sell the club to Dubai International Capital, the organisation they beat to the purchase last summer.
And it means work can finally start on the new version of Stanley Park, plans for which were also released on Friday.
But personally, I see this as no more than a stay of execution for Hicks and Gillett who are, let's pull no punches here, still only slightly more popular around Liverpool than a bucket of cockroaches.
Since they took over in a blaze of all-American glory, they have stumbled from one public relations disaster to another.
They came in promising Liverpool's fans the earth. They promised greater success on the pitch. They promised to deliver a world class stadium. They promised to make a good club great again. Sadly, those promises have proved as empty as their pockets.
They did have, as you would imagine, a brief honeymoon period when it looked like things were going swimmingly. But that soon morphed into a more divorce-like state when plans for the new stadium went pear-shaped.
Nothing to do with the plans themselves, I might add. They were magnificent. More to do with the money needed to get the darned thing built. Money they couldn't find no matter how much they scrabbled down the back of the sofa.
That meant taking the stadium back to the drawing board to be 'rethought' and scaled down in an effort to cut costs. That's like showing fans a picture of Kaka and then saying you can only afford Andy Cole.
But the Americans were not content with shattering that particular dream. They had an even better plan for causing unrest among the fans - fall out with the manager.
Hicks and Gillett, the Laurel and Hardy of club ownership, decided it would be a good idea to have a very public spat with Benitez, one of the club's most popular managers in decades.
This culminated in Hicks meeting with Jurgen Kilinsman to see if he fancied Rafa's job "just in case Bentiez leaves". I don't necessarily disagree with the move. After all, safeguarding the team's future is an integral part of any owner's job.
But publicly admitting it? That's plain stupid. A popularity own goal so bad it would even have embarrassed Titus Bramble. In short, all the Americans have done is take a hugely stable club with a popular and relatively successful manager, a very good squad and exciting new stadium plans and turn it into a quivering mass of uncertainty.
Recently the situation has started having a meaningful bearing on results. Although you could argue that what goes on at boardroom level should have nothing to do with the players, it invariably does. And especially so when they see their manager being undermined and ridiculed at every available opportunity.
Four successive league draws are evidence that Hicks and Gillett have managed to spread unease not only among the fans but among the players.
Liverpool's title hopes are all but over and, in reality, they will now have a real fight on their hands to hold on to fourth place in the Premiership and the automatic Champions League spot that goes with it.
This week Steven Gerrard spoke out about the situation and admitted the uncertainty was filtering its way down to squad level. "I've got to be careful what I say, but it's certainly not helping the team," he said.
The approach of Hicks and Gillett proves one thing: when they took over they thought they were simply buying their way into a share of the Premiership cash cow.
They didn't buy the club because they loved it or because they had been fans since birth. They bought it because they thought there was money to be made. Full stop.
And, if you want proof, you need look no further than an interview Hicks gave to an American baseball website a few months ago, which has only this week been revealed this side of the Atlantic.
"People are worried that I might take money away from the Texas Rangers (his baseball franchise) to go to Liverpool. But it is just the reverse. Liverpool is going to throw off lots of extra money which, if I choose to, I can use for the Rangers or the Dallas Stars ice hockey team," he said.
There you have it, ladies and gentleman. Evidence, if any were needed, that when the Americans bought Liverpool they thought they were getting a little goldmine called Anfield. Gold that they could syphon off for their other sporting interests.
Instead they were in for a rude awakening and the fact they have had to refinance the whole deal shows just how rude it was.
Now the cash is in place the Americans have revealed the revised stadium plans. And, I have to admit they are still pretty decent. But if they expect the fans to forgive and forget the mess they have made in their 11 months in charge, they have another thing coming.
Liverpool supporters are a dedicated bunch. They are phenomenally loyal and devoted to their team. But once you have lost their trust, which Hicks and Gillett undoubtedly have, there is very little chance of winning it back. Not even with pretty artists' impression.
Whatever the owners do or say from now on will be treated with contempt and distrust. And rightly so because the whole situation leaves a distinctly bad taste in the mouth.
Foreigners investing in English football is one thing. Foreigners investing in English football looking to make a quick buck is quite another.
If you want an example of how it should be done, then take a look at Randy Learner at Aston Villa. His take-over has been quiet, dignified, organised and well thought-out with the club's best interest at heart.
No downgrading plans, no public arguments with his manager and no need to go round the banks with begging bowl in hand. A far cry from the two cowboys who rode into Liverpool a year ago.
Despite the new deal I still think Hicks and Gillett are living on borrowed time and, within the next 12 months or so, they will have sold up and moved on allowing DIC come in to run Liverpool properly.
And for the club's fans, I don't think that moment can come soon enough.
Boys doing men's work
Watching Arsenal get a spanking this week was an absolute pleasure.
I have to admit I have been a bit of a closet Gunners fan over the past decade. It's hard not to be when you watch the beautiful way they play football.
But even so I found Wenger's decision to play his reserves in the Carling Cup for the past two seasons to be disrespectful to the opposition and conceited in the extreme.
I understand that the youngsters need to get some proper competitive experience. And I understand that, by and large, they are probably - almost - good enough to win the trophy without the help of their seniors.
But insisting on playing reserves when you know for a fact that your opponents will be fielding a full- strength team and to do so in a highly charged derby is fundamentally wrong.
What possible benefit can the likes of Walcott, Bendtner, Fabianski and Hoyte have gained from being on the end of such a comprehensive whipping? Their confidence will have been torn to shreds and that, surely, can't be the best way to develop your youngsters.
In fairness I think even if Arsenal had played their full team on Tuesday they would still have struggled to take anything from a game which obviously meant the world to their London neighbours, Tottenham.
The big question is will this humiliation - and let's face it, that's what it was - make Wenger stop treating the League Cup as some sort of glorified youth trophy? Sadly, the answer is more than likely no.
A quick one
A quote that tickled me this week from Celtic manager Gordon Strachan. Admittedly, it's not a new one. But someone reminded me of it and it made me smile all over again.
Stopped by a reporter after a game, wee Gordon was asked if they could have a quick word.
"Velocity," he barked back, before wandering off to do whatever it was he really wanted to do. Pure class.
sportscolumnist@timesofmalta.com