Rafael Benitez given £30m Liverpool war chest (Times online)
Rafael Benítez will be given at least £30 million to spend on new players this summer as he embarks on his mission to restore Liverpool to pre-eminence in English football after signing a new five-year contract.
The Spaniard retains a slight hope of overhauling Manchester United in the Barclays Premier League this season as well as making another serious challenge for the Champions League, where Liverpool and the three other English clubs will discover their quarter-final opponents this morning, but he is also building for the next campaign. His scouts are compiling reports on several wingers, including Aaron Lennon, of Tottenham Hotspur, and Antonio Valencia, of Wigan Athletic, as well as looking for a centre forward who can fill the void left by Robbie Keane’s brief, ill-fated spell at Anfield.
The Liverpool manager was criticised for selling Keane back to Tottenham in January and not replacing him, but the minimum £10 million fee raised in that deal has boosted his transfer budget to £30 million. Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr, the club’s American owners, have also allowed Benítez to reinvest any money raised by selling players such as Andrea Dossena and Philipp Degen, and offloading Jermaine Pennant and Andriy Voronin, who are on loan at Portsmouth and Hertha Berlin respectively. Further funds could be generated depending on how much the club earn in prize money in the Champions League between now and May.
Another priority is to secure the long-term futures of several of his squad and, while the immediate priorities are Daniel Agger, Dirk Kuyt, Álvaro Arbeloa and Fábio Aurélio, whose deals expire in 15 months, Benítez has already pledged to give Fernando Torres a pay rise.
The Spain forward will be offered an improvement on the £90,000-a-week, six-year contract he signed when he joined from Atlético Madrid in 2007, reflecting his status as one of the best strikers in the world.
Benítez inquired about Lennon, 21, during negotiations in the deal that took Keane to Tottenham and his interest has increased with the youngster’s impressive form in recent weeks, but other candidates, such as Valencia and David Silva, the Valencia midfield player, are under consideration. He is also casting his net wide in search of a centre forward, but David Villa, Silva’s team-mate, is out of Liverpool’s price range and is expected, in any case, to move to Barcelona or Real Madrid in the summer.
Under the terms of his new contract, which is worth £4.75 million a year, Benítez will have far greater control over transfers than last summer, when his bid to sign Gareth Barry from Aston Villa was vetoed by the board. But Hicks was eager to emphasise that the manager will have to work with a chief executive when a replacement for Rick Parry, the chief executive who is standing down in the summer, is found.
“I sat down with Rafa a couple of months ago and he made it very clear that he knows a manager can’t have control over the transfer budget,” Hicks said. “He has had his frustrations over the last five years and those are well chronicled, but he will make the recommendations about which players we sign and the new CEO, the owners and the board will make the final financial commitment. And that is the way it needs to be.”
Benítez has secured written assurances that add to his power at the club. He has been promised overall control of football matters, including, significantly, overseeing the youth academy, which has been outside his remit. These concessions from the board were instrumental in his rejection of overtures from suitors such as Atlético Madrid, an Italian club and an unofficial approach from a third party claiming to represent a Premier League club, thought to be Chelsea or Manchester City.
Contrary to popular belief, Benítez did not receive nor encourage an approach from Real Madrid, who are expected to try to entice Carlo Ancelotti from AC Milan to replace Juande Ramos in the summer.
£30million, would be nice as long as the player(s) is(are) of a high standard, and not overpriced rubbish, sounds a lot moular, but remember Keane cost £20m (approx), but then again Torres cost only a little more and has delivered so much more. So we will have to see.
Ofcourse Hicks may be bullshitting again to take some of the pressure off him, as he his constantly trying to be the nice guy, where is this money coming from, and why was it not available in the winter? Is there new investment coming in, or is it future prize money, EPL & CL?
He says it will be available from selling players, the ones mentioned I think will not equate to £20mil.
Remembering £30mil is now €30mil, not the usual €40mil we were used too.
