標題: Contract talks stall as Benitez demands total control over transfer policy [打印本頁] 作者: puma8811 時間: 2009-1-13 10:44 PM 標題: Contract talks stall as Benitez demands total control over transfer policy
Contract talks stall as Benitez demands total control over transfer policy
· Co-owners' refusal to bow leads to stalemate
· Personal terms of 4½-year deal agreed last month
Rafael Benitez is engaged in another stand-off with Liverpool's American owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, after demanding that the terms of his new contract include complete control over Anfield transfer policy.
Talks between Benitez's agent, Manuel Garcia Quilon, and Liverpool's co-owners have come to a standstill over the funda mental issue of who dictates transfer policy at the club, with neither party currently willing to back down. The new contract, which will extend Benitez's career at Anfield until 2013 and provide an increase on his current ￡3.5m-a-year salary, is now at risk of collapse unless a compromise can be found.
At present Benitez recommends who is bought and sold to Hicks and Gillett plus the Liverpool chief executive, Rick Parry, who then decide the player's value, what the club can afford – in relation to purchases – and divide the transfer budget accordingly. In future, however, the Liverpool manager wants to dispense with the existing chain of command and operate on his own terms, setting the valuation on players providing the transfer budget allows.
Benitez is, in effect, trying to ensure there is no repeat of last summer's exhaustive and unsuccessful pursuit of Gareth Barry, the Aston Villa midfielder he envisaged as a replacement for Xabi Alonso but missed out on when Liverpool's owners refused to meet Villa's ￡18m asking price. Hicks and Gillett said the Barry deal collapsed over the price tag and not because they lacked the necessary funds, having agreed a ￡20.3m deal for Robbie Keane, and the Liverpool manager believes his judgment was undermined.
The manager's stance also draws parallels with his reign at Valencia, where he sought greater control over transfers from the director of football, Jesus Garcia Pitarch, before leaving for Liverpool in 2004 having failed in that regard.
Benitez has criticised how Liverpool operate in the transfer market in the past but his prospects of capitalising on the co-owners' previous split over Parry, and wrestling authority away from the chief executive as a result, appear slim. While Hicks has demanded the chief executive's resignation and Gillett has remained fully supportive of Parry, the Americans are currently united on the contract terms on offer to Benitez.
Hicks and Gillett have relented on one contractual issue in the negotiations so far, namely the length of the deal, with the Americans improving their initial two-year extension to the 4½ years that Benitez had sought. His existing contract expires at the end of next season. The -co-owners are not prepared to grant the manager total control over transfers and how to spend the club's budget, however.
Personal terms and the length of the deal were agreed in early December only for talks to be placed on hold by Benitez's kidney stones problem – he will undergo a third operation tomorrow – and then stall over transfers. The Liverpool manager is also believed to want more influence over the club's youth academy.
Benitez revealed on Friday that negotiations had reached an impasse, although the development was overshadowed by the opening salvo of his attack on Sir Alex Ferguson. The Football Association, meanwhile, is not considering investigating the Spaniard's comments on the referee Steve Bennett or that there is a conflict of interest between David Gill's role as Manchester United chief executive and his place on the FA board. "I was talking with my agent this morning and he didn't have any news. So he is not very happy," Benitez said on Friday. "I won't talk about this. My agent is talking and is in charge of this."
The Liverpool manager has earmarked Emile Heskey for a return to Anfield on a free transfer in the summer and could, should he raise funds by selling the likes of Jermaine Pennant this month, test Wigan's resolve to keep the England international before the transfer window closes. That possibility diminished yesterday, however, when Steve Bruce claimed Heskey would remain at the JJB Stadium beyond the window and would put his World Cup place in jeopardy by rejoining the Premier League elite.
The Wigan manager, who was yesterday granted a work permit for the ￡4.5m Colombian international striker, Hugo Rodallega, said: "He's got into the England team by playing for Wigan and we play to his strengths. If I was Emile, I'd be thinking, 'Can I be England centre-forward when we go to the World Cup in 18 months?' To do that at his age I think he has to be playing every week. I know the big boys are shopping around but I think he will get over the January window and see what happens in the summer."
Bruce also suggested he would keep Heskey to give Rodallega, whose transfer now rests on a medical, time to adjust to England and the Premier League. "If we do get him, we'll be giving him some time to settle in at the club," he added.
