Benítez irks Hicks and Gillett again

Rafael Benítez has irked Liverpool's American owners yet again by making public their pledge to discuss a new contract. Although the ailing regime of Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr appears to be in its final throes, weakened initially by internal conflicts and far more critically by the global credit crunch, the tycoons have again found common ground in disapproval of Benítez.

Having finally been given encouragement last week to believe that Hicks and Gillett would agree to discuss a new contract, Benítez, who has repeatedly been asked about his future in recent months, confirmed in an interview with the Liverpool Echo that "they gave me their word" and that he expected talks to start some time this week. The conciliatory message had come from Hicks, but he and Gillett were frustrated that it was broadcast to the media so quickly, increasing their feeling that they are being forced into a corner by Benítez.

Benítez has rarely deferred to the club's owners, who planned to sack him a year ago and replace him with Jürgen Klinsmann, who is now in charge of Bayern Munich, but his dangerous games of brinkmanship have strengthened his position at Liverpool. To the surprise of everyone but himself, he survived the unedifying power struggle that consumed the club last season and, after an impressive start to the season, is in a sufficiently powerful position to have been able to force contract discussions on to the agenda. Previously Hicks had alluded to a one-year extension to Benítez's existing £2.6 million-a-year deal, which expires in June 2010, but Gillett, having taken their fallouts more personally, had been opposed to the idea.

Preliminary discussions between Rick Parry, the chief executive, and Benítez's agent, Manuel García Quilón, are due to take place in the coming days, but, with the parties likely to be far apart on the size and length of any contract, it may be that Liverpool are under new ownership by the time the matter is resolved. Hicks and Gillett are looking to sell the club and, amid an increasingly unforgiving financial climate, there is a growing belief that they are ready to drop their asking price from £550 million to £500 million. This is close to sums that have been offered by Sheikh Mohammed, the ruler of Dubai, and another unidentified Arab consortium.

Hicks and Gillett remain hopeful that they will succeed in persuading Royal Bank of Scotland to grant a six-month extension to their £350 million refinancing loan, which expires on January 25, but there have not yet been any such guarantees from the bank, which has been so hard hit by the credit crunch that it is set to be 60 per cent owned by the Government. Even if they are granted a six-month extension, Hicks and Gillett have little or no prospect of taking the club forward, having failed to raise the additional £350 million required for the construction of a new stadium.