Hicks and his fellow investor George Gillett Jr are close to finalising their ownership of Liverpool and have already set a date to meet with the manager to discuss future plans.
Hicks and Gillett will take in Liverpool's next Premiership match on March 31 against Arsenal and then talk with the Spanish coach about their plans. "We've set a meeting time to get together with Rafa after the Arsenal match," Hicks said in a radio interview. "I'll have all my family there, George will have all his family there and we'll celebrate our first game as new owners. Then we've set aside the day to talk about things [with Benitez]."
And when asked if the former Valencia manager figured in the Liverpool's future plans, Hicks said: "Absolutely."
Real Madrid, as revealed in The Times yesterday, have identified BenÍtez as the leading candidate to be their new coach — ahead of José Mourinho, of Chelsea, and Bernd Schuster, of Getafe — and believe that, despite having turned them down a year ago, the Liverpool manager may be ready to consider a new approach because of lingering concerns about his long-term prospects at Anfield.
BenÍtez was aggrieved by the failure of the new owners to meet him when they made a brief visit to Merseyside to watch the Champions League victory over Barcelona this month. He was partly placated by a series of e-mails from the United States, which pointed out the logistical difficulties of meeting up when he was preparing for the match against Barcelona, but now Gillett has held a lengthy telephone conversation with BenÍtez in a further attempt to ease the manager's concerns.
Despite the telephone call from Gillett, BenÍtez will seek more reassurance when the Americans return to Merseyside next week. By that, stage the last formalities relating to their takeover of the club should have been completed. Gillett and Hicks are due to be confirmed as co-chairmen, with David Moores, the previous incumbent, moving to a new role as honorary life president of the club.
Among other things, BenÍtez is eager to find out how much money he will have to spend on strengthening his squad in the summer, when he believes that a series of top-class reinforcements will be needed to ensure that Liverpool can compete properly with Manchester United and Chelsea in the Barclays Premiership next season.