English Premier League soccer club Liverpool has attempted to
pave the way for Rafael Benitez’s departure by offering the
under-fire manager a compromise deal to leave this summer, The
Times reported Wednesday.
In what amounts to a vote of no confidence, the Liverpool
board approved a proposal to the Spaniard which would see him
depart Anfield with a lucrative pay off worth in the region of
£3 million (US$4.4million) up front.
According to the terms of the five-year contract he signed
in March 2009, Benitez is entitled to a £16 million severance
package but given their current financial predicament there is no
possibility of Liverpool being able to come up with that kind of
money, regardless of the desire to bring about a change of manager.
As such, the club’s hierarchy is hoping that Benitez
will stand aside without demanding the windfall that he would
otherwise be due or else they will have no option but to allow him
to continue in the role he has been in since the summer of 2004 in
the knowledge that he is no longer wanted.
Though Benitez is yet to accept the offer, the chances of a
compromise being reached were raised by indications from the
50-year-old that he would not be able to take the club any further
if, as expected, the current restrictions on transfer spending are
extended into another summer.
Despite claims by co-owner Tom Hicks last week that
Liverpool is set to spend big in the coming months, the reality is
that its transfer budget is currently limited to £15 million
at most and there are yet to be any assurances that the club will
be able to re-invest the proceeds from player sales to any great
extent.
Had Benitez received the guarantees he had been looking for
during talks with Martin Broughton, Liverpool’s chairman,
then the current situation 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 now looks increasingly
inevitable.
Such is Liverpool’s palsied fiscal state, they
recently posted record annual losses of £55 million and are
saddled with debts totaling £351 million, Broughton was simply
unable to offer Benitez the guarantees he was looking for and after
a desperately disappointing campaign in which they finished seventh
in the Premier League and failed to qualify for next season’s
Champions League the club’s hierarchy would not have been
keen to extend Benitez’s tenure anyway.
Inter Milan are reportedly ready to offer Benitez an escape
route to Italy.
