Liverpool boss Gerard Houllier should have been eagerly awaiting the next stage of his Anfield revolution with experienced German internationals Dietmar Hamann and Markus Babbel at the heart of his team.

Now, not only does he have to contend with allegations that they are indisciplined drinkers but they were at the heart of a plot to overthrow German coach Erich Ribbeck.

Hard on the heels of the revelations that Hamann and Babbel caroused long into the nights during Germany's embarrassing Euro 2000 campaign, comes yesterday's claim that they wanted to install veteran Lothar Matthaus in place of Ribbeck.

Matthaus said yesterday that midfielder Hamann, defender Babbel and Jens Jeremies tried to persuade him to lead a mutiny against Ribbeck before the start of the finals.

He said that the three approached him at the pre-tournament training camp in Majorca to say they wanted him to replace Ribbeck as coach but he vetoed the idea.

'They stormed up to me and said we have to get rid of Ribbeck before the tournament,' said Matthaus. 'They said I should take over the job and train the team.' R

ibbeck quit after Germany were eliminated from the tournament after the group stage, their worst showing at a major tournament in more than 50 years.

The Germans have since been agonising over the team's poor showing with a week of non-stop finger-pointing.

The players hatched the plot after Ribbeck tried out a new defensive strategy during a secret training session just before the tournament. Reports said Ribbeck dropped the experiment 'because the players did not understand it.'

Matthaus, who retired from international soccer after Euro 2000 with a world record 150 caps, said he told the rebels he was not interested in the scheme. 'I never shoot a coach down. It was thus clear that I would not do it. But I reacted. I called Franz Beckenbauer and asked for his advice,' he said.

Beckenbauer, his mentor and a vice-president of the German Football Federation, also rejected the mutiny, saying: 'That's out of the question.' Ribbeck said he was unaware until yesterday about the mutiny brewing in the training camp. '

'They didn't even have the courage to criticise anything during our team meetings. These gentlemen were too cowardly even for that. Everything was done behind my back,' he said.

It does not appear to be the first attempted rebellion. On Monday soccer magazine Kicker claimed squad members from Bayern Munich had turned to club bosses in February in an attempt to oust Ribbeck after a 2-1 defeat against the Netherlands.

Since the tournament Ribbeck has been harshly criticised by Babbel for failing to build a core of leading players, being a poor organiser and lacking tactical acumen. Babbel, who joins Liverpool on July 1, said: 'We didn't train as we should have done in the tactical area or in set-pieces.

'We played three times against teams with a flat back four, but we only ever practised once how to outplay such a defensive formation.'

Strict disciplinarian Houllier was still digesting the rumpus over a late-night escapade, reportedly involving Hamann, Babbel and Jeremies, when Matthaus dropped his bombshell yesterday.

As revealed in Soccernet on Tuesday, Hamann and Babbel were both involved in late-night incidents that caused uproar when published by Bild.

They were spotted in a Cologne bar-restaurant, along with Jeremies, after Ribbeck had given his squad 24 hours' leave, supposedly to spend time with their families, in the wake of an unconvincing opening 1-1 draw with Romania.

Babbel has always been portrayed as a dedicated, clean-living professional, and he was quick to protest his innocence, saying: 'I was there, but not until 5 o'clock in the morning, as has been claimed. I was in bed by midnight.'

Hamann hit the headlines again by ignoring the furore that followed their 3-0 humbling by Portugal and joining Jeremies in a 5am sing-song at the team hotel.

Renowned as a shrewd market manipulator, Houllier equalled the club's transfer record by paying £8million for Newcastle midfielder Hamann 12 months ago and followed up by securing defender Babbel from Bayern Munich on a Bosman-style free earlier this summer.

Hamann has long since been touted in his homeland as the natural successor to Matthaus as Germany's midfield lynchpin, while Babbel's stock is almost as high.

Houllier believed he had finally rid Anfield of such bouts of indiscipline and is bound to act if he senses any hint of it surfacing again.