BBC claiming Klinnsman had talks with Liverpool

[Ralph Cifaretto]

Liverpool reveal Klinsmann talks Benitez (left) will be disappointed by Hicks' revelations Liverpool co-owner Tom Hicks says he held talks with Jurgen Klinsmann in November about taking over as manager in case Rafael Benitez left the club. Mixed performances and a row with Hicks and co-owner George Gillett on transfer policy put Benitez's position in doubt. "We attempted to negotiate an option as an insurance policy... if Rafa left for Real Madrid or other clubs rumoured, " Hicks told the Liverpool Echo. He added: "Or in case our communication spiralled out of control." Hicks was alluding to the criticism of Hicks and Gillett by Benitez over their transfer policy which angered the American duo and put the Spaniard's position in jeopardy. 606: DEBATE Will Rafa Benitez survive this latest revelation? Klinsmann's services have now been secured by Bayern Munich and he will take over the German club at the end of this season. The confirmation of talks between Klinsmann and his bosses will come as a blow to Benitez, although Hicks said the negotiations took place in November when the club were in danger of going out of the Champions League at the group stages and suffering indifferent league form. Liverpool needed a 4-1 win over Marseille in their final group game on 11 December to book their place in the knockout stages. It's a ham-fisted and un-Liverpool like way of dealing with this sort of thing BBC Sport's Phil McNulty The American owners and Benitez had clear-the-air talks after the Premier League loss to Manchester United on 16 December and Hicks now insists the Reds manager has their full support. "After George and I had our long and productive meeting with Rafa following the Manchester United match, we put all of our issues behind us and received Rafa's commitment that he wanted to stay with Liverpool," said Hicks. "We never reached agreement on an option with Jurgen, and we are both pleased for him that he has a great opportunity to return to Germany and coach a great club team. "Rafa has both of our support, and our communication has greatly improved." But Liverpool's form has not improved and they are currently 12 points off the top of the Premier League table. They were knocked out of the Carling Cup by Chelsea and have been taken to a replay by struggling Luton in the FA Cup third round. BBC Sport's Phil McNulty said he believed that if Liverpool had failed to reach the knockout stages of the Champions League, Benitez would have been sacked. "It's a ham-fisted and un-Liverpool like way of dealing with this sort of thing," said McNulty. "Normally everything they have done has been done in-house and yet for weeks it's been an open secret that if anything happened to Benitez then Jurgen Klinsmann was going to be his successor."

[Doom]

Read about this earlier today, kick in the teeth for rafa - trying to take man for any martin jol

[Ralph Cifaretto]

it takes the piss, the owners might be bailin out themselves so they shouldnt be sackin anybody!

[The Infamous]

I hope Gilett gets killed and Hicks dies and they take Rick Parry with them.This sh*t is ridicolous the team I support is in turmoil no wonder the players are playing sh*t.KILNSMANNfdkgjkfgljMy coaching level 2 badge>>>>>His CVFACT

[Doom]

I hope Gilett gets killed and Hicks dies and they take Rick Parry with them.This sh*t is ridicolous the team I support is in turmoil no wonder the players are playing sh*t.KILNSMANNfdkgjkfgljMy coaching level 2 badge>>>>>His CVFACT

Klinsmanns one of the best young managers around what you on

[The Infamous]

f*ck offOne f*cking jobI have had 3

[Doom]

f*ck offOne f*cking jobI have had 3

lol fair enough

[The King]

I hope Gilett gets killed and Hicks dies and they take Rick Parry with them.This sh*t is ridicolous the team I support is in turmoil no wonder the players are playing sh*t.KILNSMANNfdkgjkfgljMy coaching level 2 badge>>>>>His CVFACT

Klinsmanns one of the best young managers around what you on

Before the World Cup, the German fans wanted him sacked!

[The Infamous]

Rafael Benitez on collision course with ownersBy Tim RichLast Updated: 12:26am GMT 14/01/2008It was a throwaway remark but it carried within it a damning indictment. "We seem to be becoming like Newcastle," said Liverpool's veteran centre-half, Sami Hyypia. "Every time you pick up a paper, there seems to be something new."The papers Rafael Benitez would have picked up in the team hotel in Yorkshire on Saturday morning contained leaks from Bayern Munich that their newly appointed manager, Jurgen Klinsmann, had been offered his job.The relationship between the owners of Anfield and their manager continues to corrode like the rusting bits of steel you still stumble upon in this part of Teesside.With its horizons framed by the black Cleveland Hills and refinery chimneys, Liverpool have never enjoyed the Riverside Stadium and, as if to emphasise it, their bus was involved in an accident on its journey to a scene of regular crashes. Under Roy Evans, Liverpool were swept away in a League Cup semi-final here and four years later, in November 2002, their last credible title challenge began to come adrift at the Riverside when Gareth Southgate stuck home a loose ball. Liverpool, hitherto unbeaten, did not win again for another two months.For Gerard Houllier it marked the beginning of the end and until Fernando Torres scored Liverpool's first goal on Teesside for six years, you might have said the same for Benitez.Hyypia, like virtually all footballers, knows that the politicking between boardroom and dug-out is outside their orbit and perhaps their understanding. "We have to keep concentrating on the game," he remarked, something Liverpool have not been doing well lately. "That is our job. In the football world, some things happen very quickly and you can't do anything about them. If there are some arguments, the players hope they can be sorted out."The only men who can sort it out - with a single statement confirming that Benitez will continue to manage Liverpool at least until the end of the season - were not at Middlesbrough. Had they been, George Gillett and Tom Hicks would have noted a vast banner carrying a picture of the Boro chairman, Steve Gibson, who was hailed as, "One of Us". The Americans, even if they decide not to sell out to Dubai, are unlikely to see anything similar at Anfield.Yet there is evidence that the drip-drip of uncertainty has begun to seep into the dressing room, however much the players might fix their gaze at the pitch. The unease surrounding Benitez broke to the surface in Liverpool's last game in the North-East - the 3-0 demolition of Newcastle that exposed the full inadequacies of Sam Allardyce's regime - when Benitez accused Hicks and Gillett of not understanding the transfer system.Since then, Liverpool have lost to Reading, Manchester United and Chelsea and stumbled to four straight draws, each more unconvincing than the last. And to underline football's perversity, Liverpool have also produced the kind of great escape in the Champions League they so rarely conjure up domestically.Southgate is fortunate to be in the employment of a man who is reluctant to sack or panic and who has invested deeply in home-produced talent. "The game is crackers at the moment so Rafa's situation doesn't surprise me," he said.The Middlesbrough manager had his own problems. Illness threatened to deprive him of both Mark Schwarzer and Gary O'Neil and injury did for Jonathan Woodgate, whom he would have needed against Torres. Instead, David Wheater, another young product of the Middlesbrough academy, largely shackled a striker who even at 23 is approaching greatness. Wheater had spent last season on loan at Darlington and confessed that this felt like more than just a point. To Liverpool it would have felt much, much less.Man of the matchSteven Gerrard (Liverpool) 8⢠Won 100 per cent of his duels⢠75 per cent shooting accuracy - three shots on target⢠Completed 73 per cent of passesTalking PointIf, for reasons best known to themselves, the Premier League ruled that Liverpool would be restricted to goals scored by Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres, they would still find themselves in 10th position this morning, with three more points than Newcastle.If, however, they were limited to goals scored by Andriy Voronin, Dirk Kuyt and Peter Crouch, Liverpool would not have found the net in two months. That represents the essential truth of their season - that in the Premier League Liverpool, as an attacking force, are becoming hopelessly dependent on just two men. On Saturday, after their game against Middlesbrough, Kuyt, who despite his enormous work-rate has only managed one League goal from open play this season, said that it was time Liverpool started producing goals from other areas of the pitch in the same way that Manchester United do. At Atletico Madrid far too much reliance was placed on Torres' slim shoulders and by coming to Merseyside he might have thought the pressure would have lightened slightly. If anything, it is bearing down on him more fiercely than ever.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtm...4/sfnmid114.xml

[Lenny Jr.]

I hope Gilett gets killed and Hicks dies and they take Rick Parry with them.This sh*t is ridicolous the team I support is in turmoil no wonder the players are playing sh*t.

Calm down Lahi, i wouldnt go that far.

[MrJibbles]

I hope Gilett gets killed and Hicks dies and they take Rick Parry with them.This sh*t is ridicolous the team I support is in turmoil no wonder the players are playing sh*t.KILNSMANNfdkgjkfgljMy coaching level 2 badge>>>>>His CVFACT

Klinsmanns one of the best young managers around what you on

Joachim Low > KlinnsmanIf the owners get there way he'll be out in the summer.

[The Infamous]

I hope Gilett gets killed and Hicks dies and they take Rick Parry with them.This sh*t is ridicolous the team I support is in turmoil no wonder the players are playing sh*t.

Calm down Lahi, i wouldnt go that far.

200million + debtNo stadiumNo fundsManager on verge of leavingPlayers being hounded about the clubs futureTURMOIL

[Lenny Jr.]

I hope Gilett gets killed and Hicks dies and they take Rick Parry with them.This sh*t is ridicolous the team I support is in turmoil no wonder the players are playing sh*t.

Calm down Lahi, i wouldnt go that far.

200million + debtNo stadiumNo fundsManager on verge of leavingPlayers being hounded about the clubs futureTURMOIL

Arsenal and united are in more debt, im sureRafa dont need no more funds, needs to concentrate on what he has. Liverpool man are always talking about funds like they aint had none.Him leaving might be a blessing in disguise. You aint winning the league under him.Only one i'll give you is the stadium, you DO need that

[Mr Q]

I hope Gilett gets killed and Hicks dies and they take Rick Parry with them.This sh*t is ridicolous the team I support is in turmoil no wonder the players are playing sh*t.

Calm down Lahi, i wouldnt go that far.

200million + debtNo stadiumNo fundsManager on verge of leavingPlayers being hounded about the clubs futureTURMOIL

Blud our club is an actual shambles at the minute, the f*ck*ng AMERICANS need to leave!If we get a new manager thats going to be another 2/3 years of building, and certain players will leave!I beg this arab talk is all true.

[n/a]

what have the americans done thats so bad

[The Infamous]

1.Getting a loan when they said that the club would have NO DEBT when they took over2.Not sacking Rick Parry3.Promising 'exciting stars being brought to the club'4.Building the intial stadium but then going for some sh*t version5.Going behind Rafa's back for a sh*t manager with no experience+958934698 more thingsIts too long to write about the worst offence is the stadium one and not sacking Rick Parry

[Mr Q]

LOL @ what the have the owners done thats so bad. f*ck their snake like manouvers. The bought the club under false pretenses i think. f*ck them and their money, sell the club.

[n/a]

LOL @ what the have the owners done thats so bad.

lol at thinkin i follow the politics of ur clubi watch whats goin on on the field u can blaim the owners for alot but alot of ur players r below parbut fuk foreign investmentwhen i heard one of them dumb americans sayin there son played goal tender u jus new they were fully takin the piss

[Humble]

I swear this whole liverpool fiasco with the manager and the owners, is kinda on the same levels as Newcastles problems.

[Mr Q]

LOL @ what the have the owners done thats so bad.

lol at thinkin i follow the politics of ur clubi watch whats goin on on the field u can blaim the owners for alot but alot of ur players r below parbut fuk foreign investmentwhen i heard one of them dumb americans sayin there son played goal tender u jus new they were fully takin the piss

I never claimed you did, did i?But if you have read the whole going after klinsman thing is there really anything more to ask.

I swear this whole liverpool fiasco with the manager and the owners, is kinda on the same levels as Newcastles problems.

LOL, are you trying to quote that same so called Sami Hyypia Interview?

[Lot To Learn]

LOL @ what the have the owners done thats so bad.

lol at thinkin i follow the politics of ur clubi watch whats goin on on the field u can blaim the owners for alot but alot of ur players r below parbut fuk foreign investmentwhen i heard one of them dumb americans sayin there son played goal tender u jus new they were fully takin the piss

Ur either lieing or ur just a complete retard.