Cautious: Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez
Rafa Benitez gave a cautious welcome to a potential change of
ownership at Anfield yesterday and revealed he wants urgent talks
with new chairman Martin Broughton.
After being installed to supervise the eagerly awaited end of
Tom Hicks’s and George Gillett’s Liverpool reign, Broughton sought
to reassure Benitez over his future and made a bold pledge that
transfer funds would be available.
With a £16million, four-year contract awaiting his signature at
Juventus, the Liverpool manager intends putting both issues to the
test in the next few days.
‘I have not met the new chairman yet or spoken to him, but I
will,’ he said.
‘I don’t know exactly when, but it will be sooner rather than
later, because it is important for a manager and chairman to
talk.
‘It is clear we have to get together and talk about everything.
It is normal to want to cover all subjects and it can be good to
have just one person on hand to answer all your questions.
‘I don’t know whether money will be available at the end of the
season. I don’t know his agenda yet but I hope that is the case and
it is something that will be part of our conversation.
'If he has said he wants me to stay and there will be money,
that is good. But I need to meet him to find out.’
Benitez produced a plate of cakes and pastries to mark his 50th
birthday and was in a jovial mood as he smiled: ‘I’m an old man now
— it’s official.’
Selling up: George Gillett (L) and Tom
Hicks
It could almost have been an unintentional admission that
working for Hicks and Gillett had put years on him, but he was wary
of celebrating the end of a troubled chapter, just as he remained
guarded about Juve’s efforts to prise him away.
Mindful there could be a long gap between confirming the arrival
of Broughton and Barclays Capital and bidding farewell to Hicks and
Gillett, Benitez said: ‘Always, we have to be positive and believe
things will improve.
'I would like to think it is true when people say this is good
news, but my experience is that it is better to wait and see.
‘All our fans agree that we need to see signs of progress. There
has been talk of new investment for a while but now there is one
person everything can be channelled through.
'When I sit down with him, I will explain my ideas and see if we
can go forward quickly.
In the hotseat: Martin Broughton
‘Everyone sees this as a step in the right direction but the
next stage must be completed as quickly as possible. Stability is
always a key word in any business, and football is no
different.
'It would help us all if a satisfactory conclusion can be
reached soon.’
Asked if he would be dishing out slices of birthday cake at
Melwood in 12 months’ time, Benitez gave a knowing grin and said:
‘Hopefully, I will still be here on Monday when we play West
Ham.
'I don’t want to say too much about my future, because there has
been a lot of speculation already.
‘My agent is supposed to have made an admission in a Spanish
paper (about meeting Juventus officials). But if you talk about the
press here or in Spain or Italy, they are not always the same.
'Sometimes things are said that are not true. Even if there were
quotes, you cannot always believe them.
‘I wanted to be Liverpool manager in the past, and I still want
to be. I actually want to manage until I’m 70 or even 80. Where?
You never know in football.’
Chelsea fan Broughton, who admitted horse-racing was his main
sporting passion, backed Benitez and insisted there would be no
cashing in on Steven Gerrard or Fernando Torres at the end of the
season.
Staying? Fernando Torres
He said: ‘I can’t see any reason for any forced sales. In fact,
there will be money available for transfers, though I am not going
into how much.
‘What’s best now is for somebody or bodies to come in and build
the new stadium, make sure the club is properly financed and that
there is enough money available to take the club forward.
'I have looked at the stadium project, and any buyer would be
crazy not to proceed with it. Any bid wouldn’t be a winning one
without that commitment.’
Hicks and Gillett paid around £220m for Liverpool in 2007 and
initially set an asking price of £500m, which now looks like having
to be lowered.
Broughton insisted there was no deadline for repaying £100m of
the club’s £237m debt and that RBS were prepared to wait for the
sale to go through.
He said the Americans were seeking a ‘reasonable price’ and
added: ‘Rafa is a good manager. We want him to stay and he’s under
contract.’
Torres is still waiting to return to Spain for a verdict on his
knee injury after flights were grounded, because of the Icelandic
volcano.