Liverpool owner won’t sack Benitez (for now!)

Rafa Benitez’s future at Liverpool is secure for now – because the troubled club cannot afford to sack him.

Not even the prospect of missing out on Champions League football next season would persuade the owners to dismiss him.

While failure to reach Europe’s premier competition would cost Liverpool around £20million, the bill for ditching Benitez and his staff would be even more.

The Spaniard has four-and-a-half years to run on the £4.5m-a-season contract he signed in March. Sacking Benitez alone would cost in the region of £20m, while getting rid of the staff he brought in after sacking 16 members of the back-room team in the summer would add considerably to the overall cost.

Chelsea paid more than £23m in compensation when they dismissed first Jose Mourinho and then Avram Grant – plus members of their back-room teams.

Liverpool’s owners last night confirmed their manager was safe despite calls for his head from angry fans after a fourth successive defeat, against Lyon on Tuesday.

Gillett said: ‘The recent run of results has disappointed everybody. It disappoints the fans and it disappoints Rafa. I have seen his television interview and I know he is disappointed. But we are in this together.’

Gillett would not be drawn on further transfer backing for Benitez in January, though it is understood a modest budget will be available.

‘As for the owners, you have a situation you must try to accept and not think of too negatively. Sometimes you manage that, sometimes not. You have to manage with what you have but the relationship between myself and Gillett is good.

‘We just have to concentrate on football but a change in owner would be a very big deal for everyone at the club.’