Source: Team_Talk
Benitez hoping to invest in team
iverpool manager Rafael Benitez is already thinking about the benefits new ownership of the club will bring to the club.[LNB] On Friday, co-owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett officially put the club up for sale after months of trying to offload just a part of their share.[LNB]When that plan to gain outside investment failed to come to fruition they were left with little choice but to look to end their three-year tenure at Anfield.[LNB]The Americans brought in Martin Broughton as chairman, a role he currently occupies with British Airways, and Barclays Capital to advise on the sale.[LNB]Broughton has already said Benitez will have a transfer budget to spend in the summer, although the size of that fund may be dependent on whether new owners can be found in enough time.[LNB]The manager has complained all season about the financial restrictions placed on him with the club trying to service loan payments on a £237million debt.[LNB]He sees Liverpool falling further behind the likes of Chelsea, Manchester United and now Manchester City in terms of buying power and knows that decline must be arrested if the club are to become genuine title challengers again.[LNB]But he also accepts that throwing cash around in an attempt to claw back lost ground will also not, in itself, be a solution.[LNB]"The difference in the Premier League is money," said the Spaniard.[LNB]"To move forward we need some money and if we want to reduce the gap (to the top three) it has to be the right people [we buy]."[LNB]Hicks' explanation for selling the club will do little to improve his image with fans and much more to confirm their suspicions that the Texan saw the club as a money-making exercise.[LNB]Having bought the club for £240million he and Gillett now hope to sell it for £500million.[LNB]"Liverpool will be the most profitable investment I've ever made," Hicks told the Wall Street Journal.[LNB]"I should make four times my money. There's a strong business rationale."[LNB]The American also defended the team's disappointing season, claiming it was more to do injury problems than a lack of investment in the squad prior to the campaign starting.[LNB]"The fan blogs blame the owners but we had terrible injuries with our star players out for more than a month, and we just weren't a very good team without them," he added.[LNB]Benitez has always insisted his side over-achieved last season when they ran United a close second, finishing with a club-record tally of 86 points.[LNB]He argued the team performed at its maximum capacity for most of that campaign, resulting in a finish which skewed expectations this season.[LNB]"If you want to stay at this level for a while you have to do everything perfectly," he added.[LNB]"It is not easy when you are pushing and pushing because you cannot keep the players working so hard as they were in the last year.[LNB]"At the beginning [of the season] it is very clear that the expectation was too high, although that was normal after the very good season we had.[LNB]"We had problems from the beginning in pre-season. We can also talk about mistakes but when you have key players injured it is not possible to sustain this level of performance every week."[LNB]One of those key players, Fernando Torres, is a major doubt for Monday's game at home to West Ham as he is awaiting a second assessment on a knee injury which forced him out of last Sunday's goalless draw against Fulham.[LNB]He is due to fly out to Barcelona to see specialist Ramon Cugat, the surgeon who operated on the knee in January, but must wait until the current restrictions on air travel are lifted before he can do that.[LNB]With those being stretched further into the weekend it seems highly unlikely he will be ready to face the Hammers.[LNB]Benitez must therefore come up with another plan if he is to keep the club's outside hopes of a top-four finish alive.[LNB]"We have to do our job and win our games. It was a pity against Birmingham (which finished 1-1 the previous week) and Fulham because I think we deserved to win both," said the Reds boss.[LNB]"The fans could see the other day against Fulham that the team was doing well and they are behind the team and waiting for goals."
