Journos have to write shit that sells, and half the time talk a load of old bollocks, but how this becomes a meticulously engineered plot to undermine Rafa is anybody's guess.
Here's the thing:
There is no need to brief the press to be unsupportive of Rafa, just as there is no need to make any lies up about him - he's dug his own hole.
Nobody has forced him to buy shit players. Nobody has forced him to field shit teams. Nobody has forced him to make bad substitutions. Nobody has forced him to use shit tactics.
Nobody forced him to guarantee that we would finish fourth, and then fail to deliver on that guarantee.
Nobody needs to make up lies about this except the blindly faithful who put Rafa before the club, and for people to now try and make Purslow 'The New Rick Parry' frankly smacks of desperation.
Rafa has failed and should go, and if this forum is in any way representative of Liverpool fans as a whole, then the claim that "most Liverpool fans either want BenÃtez to stay or only want him to leave because they feel he’s been worn down by the unnecessary pressures of the past few years" is utter bullshit.
Now I know we're no RAWK or any of those happy clappy sorts, but even Reds I meet out and about and end up chatting to are pretty much of the same opinion; 5 years is enough to build a decent enough squad to mount a regular title challenge, and for nearly everyone bar Rebel, 4th place is not an achievement to be proud of, but a minimum expectation.
If Purslow has an agenda against Rafa then to be honest, I don't mind. To me, that says he's doing his job - as a manager if you've got an under-performing member of staff who isn't meeting targets, then you fuck them off.
Which is exactly what we should be doing, and as far as I'm concerned if we did have to sack him then we should be able to argue against any kind of compensation, seeing as he hasn't delivered on his guarantees. Sadly, I'm sure it won't pan out like that