Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez is furious that all transfer plans will be conducted by chief executive Rick Parry.

The Times says part of Benitez's anger with Liverpool's co-chairmen Tom Hicks and George Gillett is that he has taken umbrage at the insistence that all transfer negotiations be left to Parry and that no such talks should even take place until after their visit to Merseyside in mid-December.

Benitez - eager to sign Ezequiel Marcelo Garay, the Racing Santander defender, and to tie up a permanent £17 million deal for Javier Mascherano - expressed disgust at the proposal and has compounded matters by publicly suggesting that the owners do not understand how the transfer market works in European football.