Hat-trick hero Paul Rideout (GaryMPrior/Allsport)

He believes that John -Aldridge, the livewire manager who has been the scourge of Premiership clubs in knock-out football over the -past 20 months, will not hang around much longer if he endures humiliation against his old club and relegation from the First Division.

Rideout said: 'John is very much his own man. He feels a tremendous obligation to the fans. If he believes he is failing in any way, he will go. That's him. You have to admire him for his honesty.

He still has big expectations from his playing days at Liverpool. The guy you see giving everything on the touchline is the same guy down in that dressing room. Nothing changes. This is a manager who wears his heart on his sleeve.'

Suddenly there is an almost palpable tension in the air at a club that has trampled the ambitions of English football's elite with a swaggering self-belief.

They have claimed seven Premiership victims in the FA and Worthington Cups, the last being Glenn Hoddle's Southampton, who were shellshocked after Rideout's heroics inspired an incredible 4-3 comeback win in a fifth-round replay after they were three down.

Occasionally, Aldridge allows his emotions to erupt with such ferocity that his players describe him as 'frightening, just scary'. Such was the case with Aldridge's rousing, half-time invective that February night.

So what had former England coach Hoddle said to the Tranmere boss after being three up and then destroyed? Aldridge acknowledged: 'It was hard for him saying anything. He just came across, shook my hand and said: "Well done, see you, byeî. I'd have done the same - then scarpered fast.'

Gerard Houllier will be the one making a hasty departure today if Rideout has his way. The 36-year-old, after all, defied the nation's belief at the 1995 FA Cup final when his Wembley goal for Everton snuffed out Manchester United's dream.

Rideout and Aldridge are no doubt hoping that Liverpool's UEFA Cup exertions against Porto on Thursday night will have damaged Houllier's team in both mind and body.