Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez will be handed a £12million New Year transfer budget after all, but that is still well short of what he would need to attract top players as he bids to salvage the club's fading Premier League title dream.
The Liverpool manager’s spending power has been a contentious issue since the arrival of Tom Hicks and George Gillett, but Anfield’s American owners will back him with more funds when the window reopens in January.
With three defeats from their first eight league games leaving little scope for more slip-ups, Benitez will welcome the chance to bolster his squad and is already scouring the market for potential recruits.
Several emerging Spanish players are under review, as well as Lazio striker Goran Pandev, as he looks to strengthen on the flanks and up front.
For all the owners’ support, though, he could face further frustration. Macedonia front-runner Pandev was rated at £17m when Arsenal and Tottenham were linked with him in the summer.
Inter Milan are favourites to sign him in January.
Even so, Benitez still views the funds as an encouraging step forward after playing down the defeats by Tottenham, Aston Villa and Chelsea.
Gillett is believed to be unhappy that a supposedly private conversation between him and a member of a supporters’ group, which found its way on to a fans’ website, portrayed his thoughts as being anti-Benitez when he also referred to his ‘genius’.
Gillett responded to a question about Liverpool’s start to this season by saying: ‘In the last 18 months, we have invested £128m, on top of what has come in. That means it should be getting better. If it is not getting better, it’s not Gillett and Hicks. It’s the manager, it’s the scouting.’
Benitez, who prides himself on his coaching network, is thought to be not unduly perturbed by the comments and is more concerned about proving his theory that the League is open enough this season for a side to absorb three early defeats.
The Liverpool manager’s spending power has been a contentious issue since the arrival of Tom Hicks and George Gillett, but Anfield’s American owners will back him with more funds when the window reopens in January.
With three defeats from their first eight league games leaving little scope for more slip-ups, Benitez will welcome the chance to bolster his squad and is already scouring the market for potential recruits.
Several emerging Spanish players are under review, as well as Lazio striker Goran Pandev, as he looks to strengthen on the flanks and up front.
For all the owners’ support, though, he could face further frustration. Macedonia front-runner Pandev was rated at £17m when Arsenal and Tottenham were linked with him in the summer.
Inter Milan are favourites to sign him in January.
Even so, Benitez still views the funds as an encouraging step forward after playing down the defeats by Tottenham, Aston Villa and Chelsea.
Gillett is believed to be unhappy that a supposedly private conversation between him and a member of a supporters’ group, which found its way on to a fans’ website, portrayed his thoughts as being anti-Benitez when he also referred to his ‘genius’.
Gillett responded to a question about Liverpool’s start to this season by saying: ‘In the last 18 months, we have invested £128m, on top of what has come in. That means it should be getting better. If it is not getting better, it’s not Gillett and Hicks. It’s the manager, it’s the scouting.’
Benitez, who prides himself on his coaching network, is thought to be not unduly perturbed by the comments and is more concerned about proving his theory that the League is open enough this season for a side to absorb three early defeats.
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