The latest twist in Rafa Benitez’s long contract negotiation hit this morning as Chief Executive Rick Parry, long thought to have been at odds with Rafa Benitez, announced that he’ll end his twelve year run with the team at season’s end. It’s been rumored that the main issue in Rafa’s contract negotiations was the extent he’d have control over his transfers; Parry’s ousting would tend to indicate that Benitez has won this particular power struggle.
Whether or not Benitez being in charge of transfers is a good thing remains to be seen, of course. While Parry’s transfers haven’t exactly lit the world on fire (Robbie Keane, anyone?), some of Benitez’s ideas haven’t been much better (notably the idea that dumping Xabi Alonso would actually somehow make the team better). Regardless, it would appear that Benitez’s long contract ordeal will soon come to a close; according to the Associated Press, even bookmakers now have Benitez as the odds-on favorite to be Liverpool’s manager in the 2009-10 campaign.
It makes you wonder what came down the pike yesterday that someone found out about that made them take the prop bet about him getting the sack off the books. It would seem that him leaving them without winning a Premier League would make it incomplete for him. Just my two pence.