The whole of Twitter has gone mental defending Rafa Benitez

The whole of Twitter has just gone mental defending former Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez.

It was all sparked by former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand. As we all know, Benitez is having a tough time of it up north with Newcastle, whose owner seems determined to run the club into the ground.

Mike Ashley is letting the Magpies sleepwalk to another relegation and it seems like Benitez is well fed up. But here’s the rub: Ferdinand reckons the Spaniard should be thankful for his lot, he said in an awful segment on BT Sport.

Now, this was nearly universally rejected. Except by our old friend Richard Keys, who continues to tweet nonsense from the safety of the Middle East.

After being run out of the country due to his sacking from Sky Sports, Keys tries to keep himself relevant by talking the most nonsense out of anyone in the football industry – which is no mean feat.

But following the failed pundit’s tweets, a list of who’s who of football twitter jumped on the thread to tear Keys to shreds. It was an incredibly bizarre moment for a man who’s had his fair share of them.

Benitez deserves better than to be working under the conditions that Ashley has imposed. The Champions League winner is a great manager, who could work wonders with the proper squad.

And for ‘pundits’ to go around suggesting that Ashley should be thanked or that the manager should spend his own money to get players in through the door is laughable and insulting.

Football twitter may have a horrible mob mentality at times, but when it comes together to root out this sort of nonsense it’s a beautiful thing.

Back to Liverpool, and the Reds take on Crystal Palace on Saturday as they look to keep their title dreams alive.