Rafa Benitez not yet ready to commit his future to Liverpool

Apr 19 2008 by Ian Doyle, Liverpool Daily Post

RAFAEL BENITEZ yesterday stopped short of committing his long-term future to Liverpool after another week of turmoil behind the scenes at Anfield.

Fresh doubt has been cast on the Spaniard’s tenure after it emerged last Sunday that chief executive Rick Parry was present at meetings with Jurgen Klinsmann to discuss a proposal to become the new Liverpool manager.

Benitez was unhappy at a revelation he regards undermines his position, and has since had tentative contact with both co-owner Tom Hicks and Parry to clarify the situation.

But while the Liverpool manager yesterday reiterated his desire to “stay for a long time” – and confirmed the imminent arrival of three new signings – he refused to consider his future beyond the end of the season.

Privately, the Spaniard believes that unless Liverpool’s ownership situation is resolved during the summer, he will have no option but to listen to offers from elsewhere with Barcelona, Real Madrid, Inter Milan and Valencia interested in his services.

An agreement between Hicks and co-owner George Gillett would appear as far away as ever with the pair once again at loggerheads on Thursday.

Given the uncertainty off the field, Benitez was keen to concentrate on this afternoon’s Premier League game at Fulham.

But of his future, he insisted: “I am really pleased here and really happy, I want to stay and I have two more years left on my contract. I want to stay. And I want to stay for a long time.”

Asked if he could imagine himself walking away, Benitez responded: “At this moment, no. I think the squad is already better for next season than for this season.

“For now, it’s time to deal with problems on the pitch. I can’t change the other things.

“I understand why you need to ask about this, but you need to understand I will talk about Fulham, Chelsea a little bit if you want, but I’m not considering the future now. The future for me is Fulham.”

Benitez added: “I was talking after the game against Blackburn. Since then, we have been progressing. That

means we have been in contact. As a club, we have been progressing, and that is positive.

“I will not explain too much, but since Sunday until now, we have been progressing. So we continue working and doing our job, I was preparing the games and we have been progressing in other issues.

“Did I watch the interview with Tom Hicks? I read some pieces on the interview but I didn’t watch it.”

Benitez confirmed that his plans for next season include the arrival of one first-team squad member and two young reserves, although the likelihood is the signings will not rely on any major funding from the embattled Anfield board.

“We are working on trying to improve the squad for next season,” said Benitez. “We have some movements for next season, so we will continue trying to do the same.

“At least we are trying to go forward. We have had meetings with the scouting department, we talk about targets and they travel all around the world talking with players and agents. We are trying to do our job.

“We were this morning progressing in some issues and we will do the same. We have some signings for the next season done. They are senior players for the first team and young players for the first team and reserve team. Two of them are really close, young players, and one senior player is done. He talks good English, but is not English.

“You need to look for Bosman players. Sometimes you need to do it quickly and go for cheap players. We were doing this movement. Is the new signing a Bosman? Could be a free transfer, could be a cheap signing.”