Rafa to hold crunch Chairman talks

RAFAEL BENITEZ will hold talks with new Liverpool chairman Martin Broughton this week as speculation intensifies over his future at the club.

Benitez once again refused to quash the uncertainty surrounding his position after watching his team lose 2-0 to Chelsea at Anfield yesterday.

Goals from Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard kept the Londoners top of the Premier League and ended Liverpool's faint hopes of Champions League qualification.

Juventus are increasingly confident they can exploit Benitez's ongoing frustration at the financial restraints at Anfield by luring him to Italy in the summer.

And the Spaniard revealed he will meet with Broughton, who has been brought in by co-owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett to oversee the sale of the club, for the first time later this week to discuss Liverpool's long-term plans.

"I have four years left on my contract and I still have to talk with the new chairman," said Benitez. "Nothing is clear-cut, nothing is straightforward. We have to wait. It is not just for me to ask one or two questions. I haven't met the chairman yet. But I will have a meeting with the new chairman in the next few days.

"If we have a conversation we will try and keep it private. It is just to talk about the future.

"You are asking about my future, but the future of the club is more important.

"The fans don't have any doubt about the commitment and passion we have shown this year. The fans want to know what is going on and I want to know."

Benitez has grown tired at the lack of stability behind the scenes at Anfield and broken promises over fresh investment.

And the Spaniard suggested yesterday he was also unhappy at having become the public face for all aspects of the club's business.

"The manager has been taking responsibility at this club in the last few years for everything," he said. "I don't know if that's the way it should be. The last few years it has been the manager's responsibility all the time.

"We have been trying to do our best for the beginning to the end. Now we have to carry on with the Hull game and another four more years of my contract.

"I was talking about speculation in the last two or three weeks and have been reading about a lot of managers in the news, but we cannot keep talking about the speculation. We have another game and we have to do our best until the end. We are thinking about doing things for the future."

Liverpool's defeat - their 19th of the season and 11th in the Premier League - means they cannot finish in the top four, although Everton's failure to beat Stoke City 24 hours earlier means Europa League football is guaranteed next season.

Maxi Rodriguez (adductor) and Jamie Carragher (ankle) both face a race against time to be fit for the final Premier League game of the season at relegated Hull City on Sunday.

And of yesterday's game, Benitez said: "We approached the game wanting to win and that was very clear. We are disappointed as the game was pretty even until we conceded the first goal and it changed everything.

"Clearly they had to win the game and push forward, and it's not the same once they go ahead and they can sit back and not have to attack all the time, and they have pace up front on the counter attack. Then we had the injury to Carra after the one we'd already had with Maxi, and that's more or less been the same all season, problems on the pitch.

"Then we conceded the second goal and when you do that against Chelsea, that's normally it."

This story has been reproduced from today's media. It does not necessarily represent the position of Liverpool Football Club.