A phrase that lifted the lid on Anfield's inner turmoil
Nov 23 2007 by Tony Barrett, Liverpool Echo
Liverpool writer Tony Barrett analyses the civil war threatening to break out at Anfield and the reasons behind the sudden outburst
"AS always I am focused on training and coaching my team." - on the surface a throwaway phrase from Rafa Benitez indicating he is interested in nothing but getting the best out of his team.
But as the Liverpool manager uttered these words again and again in response to routine questioning at a Melwood press conference yesterday afternoon Anfield officials shuddered – this was the clearest sign yet that Benitez was losing patience with the club’s American owners.
The fact that the very same words were used by Tom Hicks and George Gillett in a recent communication delivered to the Spaniard when Benitez had sought rapid movement on potential deals for the January transfer window marked this out as a thinly veiled attack on his employers.
But, as a hastily released statement on the club’s official website reiterated, Hicks and Gillett are in no mood to discuss comings and goings at Anfield for the time being at least.
That statement – issued from America just two hours after Benitez’s press conference – read: “We made a significant investment in the playing squad during the summer and desperately want this team to succeed.
“There are some very important games coming up in the next couple of weeks and all of us need to focus on winning those games and getting the best out of the players we already have at the club.
“We will leave any talk of buying or selling players until we come across to Liverpool in December and sit down with the manager then.”
As far as they are concerned, such conversations will take place when they come to Anfield for the visit of Manchester United on December 16.
In the wake of the rift between Benitez and the club’s hierarchy being exposed in all its gory detail, that meeting assumes even greater significance. An almost total breakdown in communications, a growing sense of mutual suspicion and even a sprinkling of resentment means that when Benitez finally sits down with Hicks and Gillett their entire working relationship will be in question.
In many respects, the current impasse is simply a clash of two very different cultures.
Madrid-born Benitez, ever impatient for success, wants to see the club making progress on all fronts today, not wait until tomorrow to see what the future brings, by which time potential transfer targets may have moved elsewhere.
As a pure football man, the vagaries of high finance and restructuring deals mean little to him. All he wants to know is that he can bring in the players he feels Liverpool need if they are to mount a genuine Premiership challenge this season.
But Hicks and Gillett, businessmen to their very core, want to see a return on their initial investment before they even think of sanctioning further spending.
And that means satisfying themselves that the money spent on players like Fernando Torres, Ryan Babel, Andriy Voronin and Yossi Benayoun in pre-season will pay dividends.
That is why a deal to sign Javier Mascherano is yet to be signed and sealed and why moves for other targets – even much needed central defensive reinforcements – are being put on the backburner, and Benitez has been so brusquely told to concentrate on coaching the players he already has at his disposal.
Last May, the Americans were left shocked and disappointed by Benitez’s outburst the morning after the Champions League Final in Athens when he again used a press conference to state his case.
Then, he talked of the need for an Anfield revolution and for the club’s new owners to invest heavily if Liverpool were to compete at the top level.
Yesterday, he asked not for a revolution and not for millions upon millions of pounds to spend. He asked to be given the freedom to operate in the transfer market without restrictions, to be allowed to sell players no longer deemed of any great valueto fund the acquisition of players whom he feels can make a real difference.
Benitez has been here before, of course. In his final season at Valencia he clashed with sporting director Jesus Garcia Pitarch over the La Liga side’s transfer policy time and time again.
At one stage he became so frustrated, he famously accused his boss of bringing him a lampshade when he’d asked for a table.
This time around Benitez has been told not only is the furniture store not yet open, he can’t even get rid of the table and chairs he no longer likes until Hicks and Gillett give the go-ahead to do so.
In his eyes, this is an infringement on his jurisdiction as team manager. In the view of the Americans, it is a normal business practice as they take stock of how their investment is performing.
The rights and wrongs of the two positions can be debated endlessly.
On the one hand, the transfer market will not wait for Liverpool and by mid-December it is wholly possible that the players Benitez has earmarked will have tired of waiting for the Reds to make their move and gone elsewhere.
It is also almost unheard of for a top European club not to decide upon its transfer strategy until two weeks before the window opens and that clearly carries its own risks.
But, on the other hand, the delay could result in Liverpool’s own financial situation becoming much clearer by the time the meeting between Benitez and the Americans takes place.
Talks aimed at securing a major financial restructuring deal with two American banks are at an advanced stage and are expected to come to fruition before mid-December.
Also, the fact that the meeting is pencilled in to take place the weekend after Liverpool will have either reached the knockout stages of the Champions League or been knocked out of the lucrative competition altogether is likely to be more than a mere coincidence.
Liverpool’s whole spending power for the immediate future will be determined in early December and should things have not gone to plan on and off the pitch it is eminently possible that the manager’s hands will be tied in the transfer market.
For the time being, both parties are engaged in a game of risk being played for the highest stakes.
Benitez’s outburst yesterday and the Americans’ reaction to it has hardened positions and there appears little prospect of any ground being given in the short term, particularly with the chances of mediation being so slim with Benitez’s relationship with chief executive Rick Parry also at a low point.
Hicks and Gillett do not want to be seen to giving into demands and, as hard nosed American businessmen, the chances of them doing so seem remote at best.
But their position is far from risk-free. They will know, for example, that Mascherano’s situation at Anfield is being monitored by some of Europe’s top clubs, all eager to snatch the Argentinian midfielder away from Liverpool’s grasp when a deal for him could already have been concluded.
They have also been given details of Benitez’s entire transfer strategy for the coming weeks – with players marked for departure as well as arrival and a desire on the manager’s behalf to balance the books – and should the necessary defensive reinforcements not be recruited then an injury to one of the Liverpool’s main defenders could cost them any realistic hopes of challenging for the title.
For Benitez, the risks could not be greater. He has publicly challenged his employers for a second time in a bid to spur them into action.
Should they refuse to budge, his bluff will have been called and he will have to decide whether he can continue to work for people who have refused to back his judgement.
Earlier this week, Benitez spoke openly about being happy with his club, his players and his city. Yesterday, he was so unhappy with his lot he even talked of becoming the next manager of England.
It seems improbable that such talk was anything more than a shot across the bows for Messrs Hicks and Gillett.
But the fact that they fired straight back, and with interest, has today left Benitez at the crossroads of his Anfield career.
That meeting on December 16 may have to be brought forward – it is time for the air at Anfield to be cleared once and for all.
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