Former Liverpool defender Stephen Warnock has hit out at ex-Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez over the way he was treated when Liverpool won the Champions League in 2005.
Benitez had axed Warnock from the matchday squad with a clear reason with the left-back abandoned to watch his team lift the big ears trophy on TV.
"It was hard for me because I'm a Liverpool fan, I grew up standing in the Kop and everything. I thought "I f***ing hate this team, like what's going on here. I was fuming, I was so angry,' Warnock said on the Under The Cosh podcast.
"I didn't hate the team, I hated Rafa. I sat there thinking, "I'm so happy for the lads, but I'm also p***ed off with the way things have played out".'
The Englishman said being committed from Liverpool's 18-man squad saw him miss out on £200,000. It was the prize money promised the players of Liverpool won. If Liverpool had lost, the players would still have pocketed £100,000.
"I remember that night just going to bed and they said, "right, the plane leaves at this time in the morning to go for the parade in Liverpool". And then they changed it and said, "all the squad who were involved, the 18, and their wives or girlfriends," Warnock said.
'So they put all them together, bearing in mind they'd been on our flight coming over, the wives and girlfriends, and we flew back separately. Missed the parade, I watched it on Sky Sports.
'Our flight was late coming in. The lads literally landed at Liverpool Airport, got ferried to the buses and then just started the parade. I just remember thinking "what a s***show," Warnock said.
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