BENITEZ AND PARRY RESPOND TO BOARD-ROOM SNIPE

Benitez comes out fighting

Rafael Benitez and Rick Parry have both spoken in response the the allegations in this morning's Daily Mirror, that Benitez' job could be under threat if results do not improve.

The unnamed board member is quoted as saying: "We have paid too many inflated prices and inflated wages for players who are not doing the job."

"When it comes to any manager, the view of the board has always been to let them get on with it. We do not believe in interfering. But the day will come when we may not be that way inclined any more. We have always been very respectful of any manager we appoint. The view has always been the same one, the right one - that the manager must stand or fall by his efforts."

"But one thing that we can't hide is that we have to be in the Champions League every season and if we do not qualify it will be a major problem."

"The budget we have set up is still in balance if we do not get into the Champions League. But if we are to make investment in the team we are talking about £20m of income we need to have every season."

"We were looking to do something in the league. We thought it would be this year and it's not going to happen now. Normally, by the time you get to October, you'd expect the manager to know his best team and stick with it but there are no signs of that happening now. I don't think he could tell you what his best team is."

The reds have launched an investigation in to the source of the comment, but meanwhile both Rick Parry and Rafa Benitez were speaking today and touched on the story.

Parry said: We understand the expectations at Liverpool but we are clearly moving in the right direction under Rafael Benitez."

"We unquestionably have a better squad than we did last year so it is not about making judgments at this stage. There are no trophies handed out at the end of October, with the exception of the Community Shield which we have already won. You can only judge our performance over the course of a full season."

"We all knew there was a sizeable job to do when Rafa was appointed and that is why we have never laid down any timescales or imposed unrealistic pressures. What is important is continuous year on year improvement."

"The wins in Istanbul and Cardiff were great achievements which we celebrated together. Some of the early results in the league have not gone as well as we would have wanted which is why we have a collective responsibility to pull together and work even harder to improve things on the pitch."

Rafa meanwhile was tight-lipped at the Aston Villa pre-game press conference:

"I have too much respect for the club and for the board to talk about this. I prefer to speak about it in private. I learnt a good phrase off John Toshack when he was in Spain - 'no comment'."

"This story hasn't affected preparations for the game this weekend though. We have been working on the match for two or three days and we will continue to do so.

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