Rafael Benitez offered lucrative pay-off by Liverpool FC to quit
Liverpool have reportedly offered manager Rafael Benitez a substantial pay-off to leave the club this summer.
A proposal to give the Spaniard a 'golden handshake' has been approved by the Anfield board with £3million paid up front.
Last year Benitez, 50, penned a new deal worth an estimated £20million across five years but the club cannot afford to pay off the remainder of his contract owing to its crippling debts, in excess of £351million, which has prompted the financial compromise.
Should the former Valencia coach reject the offer, Liverpool will have no option other than to allow him to remain as manager but club officials are hopeful that the early pay-off will underline his position in the eyes of the board.
He would also be unable to splash the cash in the summer transfer window, with the club's budget currently standing at a restrictive £15million, and no guarantees that any funds from players sold will be reinvested in the squad rather than paying the club's debts.
Reports of renewed interest from Inter Milan are set to intenstify after Fabio Capello snubbed a return to his homeland in favour of an improved contract as head of the England team.
Inter president Massimo Moratti made his admiration of Benitez public earlier this week by saying: “I have always thought Benitez is a good coach, but he is linked with Liverpool."
But Benitez's agent, Manuel Garcia Quillon, has claimed that he has no knowledge of interest from the Serie A champions.
“I don’t know anything about Inter,” he insisted. “No one has contacted me, it’s just transfer speculation.”
Any successor to Benitez at Anfield is expected to only be temporary so as not to deter potential buyers for the club.
author : Richard Buxton @clickliverpool
Rafael Benitez in pay-off negotiations ahead of £15 million Liverpool exit
Liverpool have entered final negotiations with manager Rafael Benítez over a multi-million pound pay-off that will see the Spaniard leave the club this summer after six years.
Telegraph Sport can disclose that the club board, led by new chairman Martin Broughton, has concluded that Benítez is no longer the man to deliver progress at Anfield.
Broughton and managing director Christian Purslow are understood to have held a series of meetings with Benítez to discuss his future in the last month and, following consultation with co-owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett, have authorised discussions over the terms of Spaniard’s exit.
Club sources confirmed to Telegraph Sport on Wednesday that negotiations with Benítez have reached a “sensitive” stage, but a Liverpool spokesman declined to make any formal comment.
Interest in him from Inter Milan, seeking a successor to Jose Mourinho but rebuffed by Fabio Capello this week, may play a part as discussions reach a conclusion in the coming days.
The Spaniard’s departure, which could be finalised by the weekend, will compound the sense of uncertainty at Anfield in the wake of a poor season.
Liverpool finished only seventh in the Premier League and failed to qualify for the Champions League group stage, ensuring that they will not play in Europe’s elite competition next season for the first time since 2003.
Broughton is also leading the search for new owners to replace Hicks and Gillett and, while the British Airways chairman expressed confidence on taking up his post at Anfield that a deal could be done by the end of the year, there remain numerous barriers to a quick sale.
Hicks and Gillett committed to a full sale of the club in April as a condition of a refinancing deal with bankers Royal Bank of Scotland. The club is £351 million in debt, with interest payments last year of £41 million contributing to a pre-tax loss of £55 million.
Broughton was appointed to work with investment bank Barclays Capital to find a buyer, and it was thought that the potential change of ownership might enhance Benítez’s chances of being retained in the short term, but the board’s view has changed.
His departure will also increase concern that Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres could follow him this summer. Spanish paper Marca reported on Wednesday that new Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho intends to bid for Gerrard, a move Liverpool may struggle to resist given the uncertainty in the dugout and boardroom.
The club’s vulnerability may also prompt offers for Torres, perhaps the most prized striker in world football, though his injury-ridden season was a factor in the club’s underperformance. Chelsea and Manchester City have expressed interest in the Spaniard.
Liverpool’s declining performance, combined with Benítez’s unwillingness to acknowledge failings on his part, is at the heart of the board’s loss of faith.
Having guided the club to second in the league in 2008-09, expectations grew that Benítez could end a 20-year wait for the league title in 2010, but those hopes faded after a poor start. In fact the event the club regressed, and his exit will end a volatile six-year tenure notable for European success and political intrigue, but not the title the Kop craved.
Liverpool won the European Cup, the FA Cup and also reached a second Champions League final. But Benítez failed to challenge Chelsea and Manchester United’s dominance of the league and appeared increasingly distracted by Anfield’s politics.
He took advantage of the rift between Hicks and Gillett to oust chief executive Rick Parry, and secured unprecedented control of the club’s academy and football operations, as well as an enhanced contract in 2009.
Benítez also repeatedly complained of a lack of financial backing, but analysis of his spending reveals that of the 'Big Four’, only Chelsea exceeded Liverpool’s net spending of £122m in those six years.
Ultimately his accretion of power may have made him unmanageable, and without on-field success to bolster his credentials the board has sought a fresh start. They will be banking on Liverpool’s stature and potential to attract a successor, with Kenny Dalglish a potential interim coach.
Liverpool offer Rafael Benítez £3m to quit with immediate effect
• Club desperate to avoid paying £16m compensation
• Board seeks quick exit after transfer funds impasse
Liverpool have given the clearest indication yet that Rafael Benítez's six-year spell in charge is drawing to a close by offering their manager £3m to leave Anfield. It is believed the Spaniard, entitled to £16m if sacked this summer, has been offered the lesser sum to quit with immediate effect.
Benítez's position has been in serious doubt since January when Juventus targeted the 50-year-old to replace Ciro Ferrara. The Liverpool manager allowed that opportunity to pass in the hope of staying at Anfield, providing he obtained assurances over the club's transfer budget and search for new investment. However, with the club unable or unwilling to provide Benítez with those guarantees, the Liverpool board has presented Benítez with a shock exit route.
The former Valencia coach has held several rounds of talks with the Liverpool chairman, Martin Broughton, in recent weeks, where he outlined his strategy for restoring the club's fortunes following a dispiriting campaign involving an early exit from the Champions League and a seventh-place finish in the Premier League.
He is understood to have stressed that Liverpool cannot recover without an end to Tom Hicks's and George Gillett's calamitous ownership or without a commitment to reinvest in the squad should Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard decide to leave this summer. Liverpool's best two players have both said they will consider their futures after the World Cup and Marca, the Spanish sports paper with close ties to Real Madrid, yesterday announced that Gerrard is the principal target of Real Madrid's new manager, José Mourinho.
With no takeover imminent, and Hicks revealing last week that it could take until next year to find an investor willing to meet his £600m-£800m price for Liverpool, Anfield officials have reacted to Benítez's demands with a counter-offer that suggests they accept the impasse cannot continue and renders his position untenable. The Liverpool manager was unavailable for comment on the club's move last night.
Under the terms of the lucrative contract signed last year, Benítez is entitled to a full payout if the deal is terminated by the club. With four years remaining on the deal, Liverpool would have to find £16m to sack the man who has won a European Cup and FA Cup since his arrival in 2004. Their offer of less than a quarter of that sum is a further indication of the financial constraints at a club that, for the year to 30 July 2009, was £350m in debt and posted the biggest annual loss in its history, £55m.
Liverpool's compromise package could be a means to encourage a takeover by removing a manager whom a potential new investor does not want for a reduced fee. However, with Hicks and Gillett holding out for a substantial profit on a club that has yet to begin work on a proposed stadium on Stanley Park, and no offer for a total sale on the table, it is more likely a sign that Benítez's conditions cannot be met. The manager has had to sell players before he could buy during recent transfer windows and, in the absence of a new investor or monies from the possible sales of Gerrard and Torres, will be in a similar position this summer.
Should Benítez accept the payoff, and there are no indications at present that he will do so, he is unlikely to struggle to find employment despite Juventus, having lost patience in their pursuit of the Liverpool manager, appointing Luigi Del Neri as coach and Real Madrid, another former suitor, replacing Manuel Pellegrini with Mourinho. The president of the reigning European champions Internazionale, Massimo Moratti, is a confirmed admirer of the Spaniard and has seen his hopes of enticing the England manager, Fabio Capello, back to Italy after the World Cup dashed.
Where Benítez's departure would leave Liverpool, meanwhile, is open to conjecture. Two potential candidates, Roy Hodgson and Martin O'Neill, have reiterated their commitment to Fulham and Aston Villa respectively since the end of last season and, as the circumstances behind Liverpool's offer to Benítez suggest, substantial funds are unlikely to be available at Anfield this summer.
The Liverpool careers of Gerrard and Torres are not intrinsically linked to the presence or departure of Benítez. Both players, along with their manager, have been awaiting evidence from the Anfield hierarchy that the club can strengthen the squad and compete for honours next season before making a decision on their futures.
author : Andy Hunter @guardian
The gag went along the lines of Rafa Benitez being asked to draw up his transfer wishlist for the summer, on which he eagerly pencilled in a £50million bid for a certain Mr Messi.
Yet, so the punchline goes, Liverpool were unable to come up with the necessary finance to close the deal, so Benitez signed Mr Tickle and Mr Bump instead. Boom, boom indeed.
Forget the chuckles, however, and the analogy goes some way to explaining the breakdown in relations that seems certain to see him take his leave of Liverpool after six turbulent years on Merseyside.
While Benitez cites a lack of muscle in the transfer market as one of the reasons he feels he has taken the club as far as he can, so owners George Gillett, Tom Hicks and the rest of the Anfield board would point to the wasted millions spent on players who did not fit the bill.
There is merit to both arguments, but the fact each party is entrenched in the view that they are in the right illustrates why a clean break is the only sensible course of action at a club who have done little that is logical in recent times.
For the Benitez era – which started with the unforgettable, gut-wrenching glory of Istanbul in 2005 at the end of his first season – to end with Liverpool further away from the elite both in England and Europe is an ill-fitting conclusion.
Liverpool are losing one of the Continent’s best coaches but one who, in recent seasons, appeared to lose sight of the fact that his strengths were most evident when he was out on the training pitch and not picking fights in the boardroom.
It is all remarkably similar to his exit from Valencia, when spats followed a glut of silverware and peace and harmony gave way to bitter acrimony.
For the fallout with Jesus Garcia Pitarch at the Mestalla, read the rows with former chief executive Rick Parry and current managing director Christian Purslow.
Given that his side finished second to Manchester United the previous season and apparently ended that campaign with real momentum, it is easy to trace the unravelling of Benitez’s tenure to the sale of Xabi Alonso to Real Madrid for £30m last summer.
There is little doubt that Alonso’s departure, which was inevitable the moment Benitez and Liverpool botched an attempt to sell him in the summer of 2008 off the back of a poor personal campaign, had a bearing on the demise of those he left behind.
Yet it is too convenient to pin the slide towards mediocrity purely on that single factor, when key players were badly out of form last term, injuries undermined the quest for consistency and the money Benitez reinvested from Alonso’s sale on winger Alberto Aquilani and right-back Glen Johnson blew up in his face.
Delve further back and the departure of one-time trusted assistant Pako Ayest aran in acrimonious circumstances at the start of the 2007 season stands out as a landmark event, because it led to Benitez taking on too much responsibility himself. The replacement of chief scout Paco Herrera, who left to go back to Spain with Eduardo Macia, also led to the sort of mistakes in the transfer market – the £20.2m lavished on Fernando Torres being the exception – that undermined Benitez and ensured this term’s seventh-place finish was to be deemed not good enough.
Robbie Keane’s £20m switch from Tottenham was ill-advised and his days were numbered, given that he was only second choice after Benitez missed out on his No1 target Gareth Barry.
Still, Benitez can justifiably feel aggrieved that when new owners arrived at Anfield amid much fanfare, their finances ran out as quickly as their enthusiasm.
It serves as an illustration of Liverpool’s decline that they never stood a chance of recruiting a manager such as Jose Mourinho, who recently took the reins at Spanish club Real Madrid.
It is also misguided to think Benitez’s looming exit will be akin to waving a magic wand over all of Liverpool’s problems, with chairman Martin Broughton suggesting as much when he recently indiscreetly claimed it will take “three years” to turn around the club’s fortunes .
Liverpool need a benevolent billionaire to step out of the shadows, buy the club from Hicks and Gillett, fund the much-delayed new stadium and make about £100m available for team strengthening.
That only Chelsea and now Manchester City have benefited from such deep-pocketed owners in the entire history of the Premier League shows why an answer to the prayers of a once-proud institution is unlikely to arrive any time soon.
There will be an outcry at the developments by a hardcore of Liverpool supporters who believe Benitez to be the victim of unique circumstances.
But in the cold light of day, it feels that divorce will be best for everyone.FOOTBALL: LIVERPOOL MELTDOWNFOOTBALL: LIVERPOOL MELTDOWN‘He wanted Mr Messi but got Mr Tickle and Mr Bump’PAUL JOYCE assesses the breakdown of Liverpool’s relationship with Rafa Benitez
author :Paul Joyce @dailyexpress
Liverpool offer Rafael Benitez a way out of Anfield
Liverpool have attempted to pave the way for Rafael Benítez’s departure by offering their manager a compromise deal to quit the club.
In what amounts to a vote of no confidence in the man who guided them to Champions League victory in 2005 on that unforgettable night in Istanbul, the Liverpool board approved a proposal to the Spaniard that would allow him to leave Anfield with a payoff worth about £3 million up front.
According to the terms of the five-year contract he signed in March 2009, Benítez is entitled to a £16 million severance package. However, given their financial predicament, Liverpool cannot come up with that kind of money, regardless of their desire to bring about a change of manager.
As such, the club’s hierarchy is hoping that Benítez will stand aside without demanding the windfall he would be due. Otherwise it will have no option but to allow him to continue in the role he has had since the summer of 2004 in the knowledge that he is no longer wanted.
Although Benítez has yet to accept the offer, the chances of a compromise were raised by indications from the 50-year-old that he would not be able to take the club any farther if, as expected, restrictions on transfer spending are extended into another summer.
Despite claims by Tom Hicks, the co-owner, last week that Liverpool are set to spend big in the coming months, the reality is that their transfer budget is limited to £15 million and there have yet to be any assurances that they will be able to reinvest the proceeds from player sales to any great extent.
Had Benítez received the guarantees he had been looking for during talks with Martin Broughton, the Liverpool chairman, in recent weeks, yesterday’s shock developments — broken exclusively on thetimes.co.uk — would not have arisen.
But with both parties unable to envisage a way of working together for the good of the club, a parting of the ways looks inevitable.
Such is Liverpool’s fiscal state — they recently posted record annual losses of £55 million and are saddled with debts totalling £351 million — Broughton was unable to offer Benítez the guarantees he was looking for.
After a desperately disappointing campaign, in which Liverpool finished seventh in the Barclays Premier League and failed to qualify for next season’s Champions League, the club’s hierarchy would not have been keen to extend the manager’s tenure anyway.
Inter Milan are ready to offer Benítez an escape route to Italy should he show any willingness to follow in the footsteps of José Mourinho, although Benítez’s agent, Manuel García Quillón, has insisted that the European champions have not made contact with his client. “I don’t know anything about Inter,” Quillón said. “No one has contacted me, it’s just speculation.”
Massimo Moratti, the Inter president, is monitoring Benítez’s position. On Monday he made his interest public when he told reporters that “I have always thought Benítez is a good coach, but he is linked with Liverpool”. Moratti will be encouraged by the fact that those ties appear to be loosening.
It would be difficult for Liverpool to find a top-class replacement for Benítez given that they cannot offer candidates a squad that is equipped for a title challenge or a substantial transfer budget to tempt them.
The situation is further complicated by the club being for sale and the Liverpool board may not be able to offer Benítez’s successor a long-term contract in case potential investors are not impressed by their choice. That could mean a temporary manger is the only viable solution.
It is against this backdrop that Real Madrid have raised the stakes in their bid to sign Steven Gerrard. The front page of Marca, the Madrid newspaper most associated with Real, carried a picture of the Liverpool captain yesterday and a story revealing that he is the No 1 transfer target of Mourinho, the new coach.
Although they are adamant that Gerrard is not for sale, Liverpool are bracing themselves for an offer, probably in the region of €30 million (about £25 million).
author : times
Liverpool fans plan protest against owners
Liverpool fans are planning a protest at Anfield on Thursday evening following the news that the club are attempting to force Rafa Benitez out of Anfield with a £3m pay off. While supporters may be divided on their thoughts on Benitez himself, what they are united in is their hatred for owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett. Supporters are now left with little confidence that the two Americans, who recently put the club up for sale, along with new chairman Martin Broughton, a lifelong Chelsea supporter and banker, will make the right decision. There is also anger at the way the club have conducted themselves during the process, one again proving that Hicks and Gillett do NOT understand the Liverpool Way. Leaking stories to journalists when the manager is on holiday is not the way to conduct business. There is also anger at the fee of £3m – less than what former chief executive Rick Parry, who was instrumental in selling to the Americans, received. The protest will take place at 6pm at Anfield. The message is clear, Gillett and Hicks are ruining OUR Football Club. author : TIA
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