Sam Allardyce knows how to bring entertainment to football. Not on the pitch (unless you like your footy peppered with moves from a UFC bout) but from the pervasively fixated pantomime act he insists on continuing with Rafael Benitez.
Just in case followers of football hadn't noticed the subtle indications given by Allardyce over the past five years, the Blackburn manager thought he would make his feelings perfectly clear on Benitez once and for all: "I just don't like him."
Hardly shocking news to hear, this latest round of headline grabbing soundbites are in response to a sarcastic comment made by Benitez after his team came away from their Blackburn battle with three points and a few war wounds.
That comment made by the Liverpool boss was in itself part of his very own retort to a veiled personal attack from Sam Allardyce during the pre and post match interviews surrounding a 2-1 Anfield victory.
Before the game his Blackburn counterpart suggested Benitez was being hypocritical by recently making Liverpool play in the same style of football he "moaned about in the past" when facing one of his teams.
Just like the two pronged attack from Ferguson and Allardyce last April, this initial comment by Big Sam was not in response to anything said by Benitez or the club.
After the encounter Allardyce was quizzed by a local journalist who asked: "You've had a lot of goes at Liverpool; do you not respect Rafa Benitez?"
Appearing a little aggrieved he sidestepped the "respect" part of the question and defensively responded: "Only when Liverpool have a go at me and when I get criticized by Rafa Benitez. I'm entitled to respond and if you don't know that, over the past few years, then your deluded my man."
The journalist then highlighted there has been no criticism from Benitez or Liverpool prior to this game: "Well that's fine, not this time" Allardyce quickly replies, "but many other occasions I have been criticized personally by the manager."
To be fair to Allardyce, at times Benitez can be guilty of the same tit for tat mentality many supporters secretly wish he avoided. Neither manager is victorious in this bitter head to head, and both can be seen as losers; but with massively different levels of hypocrisy and dishonesty credited to their opinions.
If Allardyce is allowed to instigate personal attacks referring to Benitez as hypocritical and disrespectful; aside from the obvious hypocrisy: why does the Blackburn manager become so moved to respond with such distaste when he gets the same treatment in return?
In a separate interview some weeks after the Blackburn game he states "I don't get personal with him; I get into him and under his skin, yes, but that's all part of the game."
Judging by the constant instigation of conflict from Allardyce; it could easily look like Benitez has gotten under the skin of Allardyce much more than the other way round.
The proverbial stone throwing from the safety of a glass house is simply childish mind games Allardyce worryingly enjoys: "Being able to wind up a manager is satisfying, even if it doesn't quite work your way in terms of results".
According to Sam and Alex's body language interpretation skills and the over insistence of their theory's validity; it wouldn't be hard to imagine that Benitez is still pretty satisfied after his simple hand gesture managed to wind up both Allardyce and Ferguson so much they feel overwhelmed to remind everyone of the severity of the insult at every chance.
Benitez knows his true intentions when Liverpool went 2-0 up where nothing more than a typical conversation using hand signals with his midfielder Xabi Alonso (Benitez said the free kick should go long, Alonso sent it short, Liverpool scored, Benitez said "forget listening to me" with a dry smile on his face).
The real story should have been the Liverpool gaffer cracking a smile when his team scores a goal, not a meaningless incident that was so distressing to two long standing and experienced managers the shock led to the suffering duo waiting several days before reporting their feelings.
However, the Spaniard must have felt a little pleased with the transparency coming from some of his more vocal hecklers during their nonsensical and synchronized personal attack last year.
Allardyce has just recently suggested Benitez only poured scorn on Blackburn's overly physical style of approach simply to disguise how badly Liverpool played: "It was a good cover-up by Rafa because he knows how bad his side were."
But earlier comments from the Yorkshire man a week after the Anfield showdown spoke proudly of how well his own team had played: "Blackburn's performance at Anfield last weekend was the best any of my teams have played there."
Is it really the best idea to constantly talk about how poor a team Liverpool have been this season, how poor their form had been prior to the game, and just how poorly Liverpool had played during the match; only to mention a few weeks later the best display from any team he has ever managed at Anfield was still only good enough to lose the game.
Probably not what you want to hear if you are a Blackburn player.