Before games at Anfield a huge flag is passed across the Kop bearing the faces of every managerial legend since Shankly.
Right now, the chances of the flag's owner asking his mum to help him sew on a drawing of Roy Hodgson's kipper are close to nil.
It's not because Hodgson is a bad person (he actually hates the same right-wing figures most Liverpudlians do), is a lazy coach (he's out at every training session putting players through their paces) or has done one big thing wrong in the six months he's been in charge (Christian Poulsen excepted).
It's that he's never looked like a Liverpool manager (the face-rubbing hamster impression really has got to stop before it ends up on the BBC's Walk On The Wild Side, with a Jason Manford voiceover saying, "Wodda we gunna do now Sammy, wodda we gunna do now?")
And he's never sounded like one: "Newcastle are notoriously difficult to beat at home," he said after last weekend's abject surrender to a team who have already been beaten at St James' Park this season by Blackpool, Stoke and Blackburn.
That's because, strictly speaking, he isn't a Liverpool manager. He's a Liverpool caretaker manager. He is Ronnie Moran, with a similarly uninspiring record.
He was appointed by two City figures not because of who he was but who he wasn't: Rafa Benitez. Martin Broughton and Christian Purslow didn't want a Spaniard in the works as they tried to sell the club so replaced him with someone who would toe the party line.
Hodgson knew all this when he was offered the job. Yet still took it, despite being given a short-term contract, no decent transfer budget and being barred from overhauling the coaching staff.
He clearly thought he had nothing to lose and everything to gain. Show you can take Liverpool to where they want to be and he'll keep the job long-term. Instead he's taken them back to where he used to be with Fulham. Which is why, unless there is a miraculous upturn in performances, he won't even keep that job medium-term.
It's easy to see why many fans want him sacked immediately. But what would that achieve apart from more instability? Did they sack Moran during his 10-game caretaker phase back in 1991? Or did they let him keep things ticking over until they found their new man?
That's what these new owners are doing and painful as it is to watch, fans should back them. The 44-month Hicks and Gillett reign holed this club below the water and it has yet to stop sinking.
A proper, thought-out strategy is needed to get them back to the top. It would be easy for new owners to court popularity by sacking an unloved manager (look at Blackburn) which is probably what Tom Hicks would have done.
But if I'm reading them correctly, John Henry and Tom Werner are taking advice and taking their time to find the best available coach to help deliver their long-term vision for the club.
That is the right decision. Until they find him, or until Hodgson hits a disastrous, confidence-crippling run of results and there is no alternative but to draft in another caretaker like Kenny Dalglish or Phil Thompson, Liverpudlians have to stay patient and do what they've always done - back the manager.
It's not about giving Hodgson a chance to prove himself, it's about giving the owners a chance.
After rescuing Liverpool from the death-grip of Hicks and Gillett, a chance is the least they deserve.
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