What Brendan Rodgers did on Tuesday night was practically inexcusable.

Irrespective of yesterday’s result against Chelsea, even if his team thrashed the champions-elect, playing his reserves against Real Madrid was woefully ill-judged.

Not only that it was disrespectful – not just to Liverpool’s opponents on the night but to the rest of the group, the club’s fans, its history and its heritage.

As it turned out, Liverpool’s second string faired quite well in the Bernabeau, losing by just the single goal. But that was a mere a quirk of fate – if you were to repeat that match with the same line-ups, 99 times out of a hundred you would end up with a five- or six-goal thrashing. And Liverpool’s manager knew that.

In resting key players like Raheem Sterling and Steven Gerrard for a game against the reigning European Champions, Rodgers sent out a sad message – that Liverpool no longer feel like they belong at Europe’s top table.

I don’t think I can remember any English side, let alone one with the pedigree of Liverpool, essentially forfeiting a Champions League game. It was an embarrassing admission of defeat even before a ball had been kicked.

Rodgers can dress up his team selection all he likes, but the reality is he approached what could have been memorable European night like a dead man walking. He didn’t believe his side could win and his team selection showed it.

And going into any game without at least a shred of belief in your chances is fundamentally wrong on so many levels. The Liverpool teams I remember from years gone by would have gone into Tuesday’s match with the attitude that it is Real Madrid who should be worried.

Even if they were the underdogs at the time, even if the odds were stacked against them, they would never have let that weakness show.

The irony is that after spending several years fighting to get back into the Champions League, this was essentially sacrificing it in favour of the domestic league.

Rodgers seems to think that getting back into the top four, and securing Champions League football for next season, is more important than actually playing in it this season.

And while he may actually be right from a financial perspective, is that all Liverpool are these days? A club trying to make money from brief and unexciting forays into Europe’s prime competition? Is that really the sort of vicious circle their fans deserve to get caught in?

I’ve got a lot of time for Rodgers. I think he is an excellent young manager who has earned the right to be at a top club.

But if I were a Liverpool fan I would find his decision-making process last week bordering on the unforgivable.

Climbing down the managerial ladder

If anyone can think of a bigger glutton for managerial punishment than Lee Clark, I would love to know who it is.

The former Huddersfield manager has just spent a couple of seasons banging his head against the wall at Birmingham, a club in terminal freefall thanks to financial mismanagement.

This ended when he was sacked by what remains of the club’s directors a couple of weeks ago with Birmingham second bottom of the Championship. The fact that they lost their next game 8-0 suggests that maybe Clark was actually the only person stopping those results from happening every week.

Anyway, sacked he was, leaving himself free to seek out another club with more financial stability and potential for success.

So how on earth has he ended up in charge of Blackpool?

If it were just the fact that Blackpool were actually one place lower down the Championship and propping up the entire league, you could maybe dismiss it as Clark being optimistic.

But Blackpool are not just appalling on the pitch and destined to join Birmingham in League One next season, they are also run by people who are a few sandwiches short of a picnic.

This is the club that has been going through managers like most people go through underwear. This is a club that only had eight contracted players just three weeks before the season began. This is a club where even the members of the board are suing each other.

In short, Blackpool make Birmingham look stable, which is saying something, considering the Blues’ owner is currently behind bars in Hong Kong for money laundering.

So why has Clark willingly leapt from the frying pan into the fire?

Who knows? Maybe he is a closet sadist. Maybe he just likes a challenge. Or maybe he has an incredible amount of confidence in his own ability.

After spending several years fighting to get back into the Champions League, this was essentially sacrificing it in favour of the domestic league

Whatever is behind his decision, I would suggest there is now a serious danger that the reputation of one of the most promising young English managers in the game, who once took Huddersfield on a record 43-game unbeaten run, is going to be irreparably tainted by his inexplicable attraction to poorly-run clubs.

A tiny overreaction?

If you thought Rio Ferdinand’s three-game ban for sending naughty tweets was harsh, maybe he should count himself lucky he doesn’t play his football in Switzerland.

Ricardo Ferreira, who turns out for Portugal Futebol Clube in the amateur Bern League, recently got himself in trouble when he kicked a ball in a referee’s face and then sprayed him with water.

Definitely bad behaviour and certainly worthy of a bit of time on the sidelines.

But Ferreira will be spending more than a bit of time not playing: he was banned for a staggering 50 years.

“We do not want such a player in our league,” a spokesman explained.

In their defence, Ferreira had already been banned for 45 games previously for attacking opponents. So his bad boy reputation won’t have helped in this latest sentence.

Ironically, Ferreira hadn’t even made it on to the pitch in the game during which the incident occurred – he was an unused substitute.

Barring any appeals, he will not be allowed back on the pitch until 2064, when he will be 78. Should give him plenty of time to get over his anger management issues before he makes his comeback…

Letting a fortune slip through your fingers

The plight of former England goalkeeper David James should be a warning to all young professional players – one day the bling fountain will run dry.

James earned more than £20 million during a career which took in clubs like Liverpool, Aston Villa and Portsmouth.

But he is now utterly broke, having lost a large chunk of money in a divorce and blowing the rest on a somewhat frivolous lifestyle.

James, now 44, has been declared bankrupt and this week is auctioning off all sorts of things, ranging from memorabilia, shirts and footballs to more mundane stuff like bicycles, toys and even a chainsaw.

It’s a stunning fall from grace for a man who has always been charitable and generous but who was careless with money to a scary level.

Hopefully, after this auction, James will not let the opportunity to rebuild his life slip through his fingers, if you will pardon the expression.

It’s never nice seeing any professional footballer so desperate he is prepared to sell off his balls.

Then again, I suppose there are plenty of people out there in similar positions who don’t even have the balls to sell…

sportscolumnist@timesofmalta.com
Twitter: @maltablade