By PA Sport

Everton may have reinvented themselves as the self-styled 'People's Club', but Liverpool have found their new man of the people in manager Rafael Benitez.

His stroll into Cologne's city centre last week in search of a pub and a TV screen ended with Benitez enjoying an evening with Liverpool fans in Jameson's Bar.

The place probably did not hold more than 200 raucous Scousers watching Manchester United go out of the Champions League, but virtually every one of Liverpool's 2,000 fans in Germany will try to convince you they were there.

They will tell you they were sitting with a man who insists he wants to "discover the heritage of Bill Shankly and learn about him".

It is hard to imagine the likes of Arsene Wenger or Sir Alex Ferguson stepping around the local German military police to buy drinks for fans, but Benitez has cemented himself into Kop folklore for his actions.

And if he can engineer back-to-back home wins this week, first on Wednesday against Blackburn and then on Sunday in the derby showdown with Everton, his hero status will be assured.

The German party did get a bit out of hand in the end with everyone wanting to wish him luck for the Leverkusen triumph, so he retired early to allow the punters to sing the night away.

But here was one foreigner intent on being one of the boys and finding out for himself what makes such a famous club tick.

He will have discovered that the songs from Liverpool's travelling fans are still about Emlyn Hughes and Tommy Smith, of Kenny Dalglish and Shanks.

And with that he will have discovered the key to his reign at Anfield. He has set out to discover the roots of the club and the new city he calls home.

He maintained a couple of weeks ago he was not just here for the money. He wanted trophies and he has already bought into the atmosphere by bringing his entire family over to his new Wirral home.

To Benitez it is the past that explains the future. And the victory in Leverkusen underlined that more than ever. He will now know that Liverpool refuse to be cut adrift from the European elite they once ruled.

They demand to be taken seriously as Champions League contenders and their song about winning the trophy four times - turned into five at the BayArena by jubilant fans - will ring in his ears because that is the heritage that refuses to drift into history even if it is now a distant memory since their last European Cup triumph.

Liverpool do not have the money to compete with Chelsea or the ground to compete with Manchester United, but they are clinging onto the good old days defiantly. And they are still English football's most successful club.

It is those days that seemingly form much of Benitez's learning curve at Anfield. He admitted that in the days before Leverkusen he sat at home watching videos of Liverpool's past European Cup finals.

And his wife reads the club's history books so she can discuss those great years with her husband when he returns from the Melwood training ground.

Benitez says: "Bill Shankly brought fresh air to Anfield. They breathed ambition, discipline and success. So now what my wife and I do is learn about him every day.

"She spends some of her day reading books about the history of this great club and every day, when I finally get home from Melwood, she teaches me more and more about Liverpool and what made it great.

"My challenge is to find, teach and inspire the old Liverpool spirit, the mentality, the philosophy of respect and the original values of football that our club made famous over generations.

"Shankly changed Liverpool's mentality into the hungry one that fuelled their desire to win. That was the basis for the Liverpool teams that later, even without him, went on to win those four European Cups.

"I spend 10 hours or more every day in Melwood and when I go back to my house I'm on the sofa watching a video, maybe an old one from great Anfield nights in the 1970s. Then I talk to my wife about my day and all the things that are unresolved in my head.

"I fight hard to find some time for my two young daughters, but the rest...it's football."

He adds: "In Valencia I could go home for my lunch and work around six hours a day. Here I am at the training ground 12 hours sometimes and my wife will ring and ask me what time I will be home for a meal, I can only say, 6,7,8 maybe.

"It is the way it has to be, I will work hard to bring success to Liverpool. I am sure English managers going to work in Spain would have to do the same."

With the worst injury list in the last eight years at Liverpool, Benitez has been denied much luck since he arrived. But a Carling Cup final, European Cup quarter-final or maybe fourth place in the Premiership would be a remarkable return for the Spaniard.

They've 'just' got to beat Everton to get within touching distance of the dream.