What are the chances of Rafa Benitez taking charge of Real Madrid next season? Pretty good BPL suggests.

Events in Wigan and Madrid this week have conspired to make the prospect, always on the cards, ever more likely.

It goes like this.

Manuel Pellegrini is a dead man walking at Real. The club has form a mile long for sacking "under-performing" coaches: Fabio Capello in 2007, just 11 days after leading the Galacticos to their first title in four years; Vicente del Bosque in 2003, having achieved the same result; and poor bloody Jupp Heynckes, axed after winning the Champions League title, no less, in 1998.

Pellegrini was even given the dreaded vote of confidence after the 2-1 aggregate defeat by Lyon on Wednesday by club director general Jorge Valdano. "Yes he has a contract, which is why the club's plans are for Manuel to continue being the coach of Real Madrid. Pellegrini is the coach of Real Madrid, we respect him, of course, and we trust in his work. There is still a lot to be done."

A real ringing endoresement there. No, Manuel is gone. If not now, at season's end.

Over on Merseyside, Rafa has lost the dressing room. The pitiful performance in losing 1-0 at Wigan on Monday night and the Spaniard's angry blast at his players merely confirmed what has been known for some time. Defeat overnight at Lille in the Europa League won't have helped improve the mood. 

Indeed, he might have gone already, if not for the prohibitive payout required of the financially troubled club to send him on his way before his contract expires in 2014.

A Real move for Rafa would appeal to both clubs. The loadsamoney Spanish giants get a Champions League winner, the only prize by which the nine-time European champions define their seasons, and Liverpool gets the chance to start afresh without further damaging its parlous finances.

Benitez has made several miscalculations, which have tested and finally broken the Kop's patience.

He sold playmaker Xabi Alonso to Madrid and did not replace him, and has paid a heavy price for failing to provide adequate cover for star striker Fernando Torres, who with captain and fellow goalscorer Steven Gerrard, has been injured for chunks of the season. This despite Michael Owen and his agent reportedly pleading on the phone pre-season for a return to Anfield even as the player drove down the motorway to Carrington to sign for Fergie.

And this was to be the season the Scousers would reclaim the league title for the first time in 20 years and draw clear of their arch enemy Manchester United, who in 2009 had drawn level as the most successful club in England with 18 top-flight titles.

Instead, the side was dumped out of the Champion League early doors and is now struggling to qualify for next season's competition. Liverpool, now sixth, is a point behind Tottenham and Manchester City, which have games in hand, and just three ahead of Aston Villa, which has a whoppping three games in hand.

But Benitez's reputation abroad, especially in his native Spain, remains intact. They remember him as the man who won two La Liga titles with Valencia before taking Liverpool to that stunning comeback victory over Milan in the 2005 Champions League final in Istanbul, and to the final again two years later.

Back then, Rafa was the king of Anfield. Now the best he could do for the club before moving on would be to use his unrivalled tactical nous to somehow deliver that fourth-place finish and regain some pride and the chance to avoid the financial catastrophe that failing to qualify for the Champions League might well herald for Liverpool.