While most observers would say that Rick Parry's biggest mistake was to sell the club to Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr, the Liverpool chief executive may come to believe that his biggest blunder was appointing Rafael Benítez as manager.

Parry brought Benítez to the club, but the Spaniard's relationship with his chief executive has been fraught. A Liverpool fan from childhood, Parry believes that managers and players are transitory and only the club endures. To Benítez, who craves control, this translates into a suspicion that the chief executive thinks the manager is dispensable.

The former Valencia coach has also complained that he has reached agreement with some of his transfer targets only to find that Parry, instead of tying up loose ends, has presented the clubs and players concerned with inferior financial packages to those promised by the manager, causing the deals to fall through. This is just one area where their different philosophies have caused their relationship to deteriorate.

Ultimately, only one of Benítez or Parry will survive. It is a sideshow to the ownership issue, but one that has serious ramifications for Liverpool.