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George Gillett Jr says he and Tom Hicks, his embattled Liverpool co-owner, are working to repair their fractured relationship as they struggle to find funds for Rafael Benítez, the club's manager, to strengthen his squad this summer.

In his first interview since late March, when he described his partnership with Hicks as “unworkable”, Gillett told a Canadian radio station that communication between the pair has “substantially improved” with both men determined to help the club become more competitive in next season's Premier League.

“It’s fair to say that communication between the Hicks and the Gilletts has been substantially improved and I believe that it will be for the benefit of the club," Gillett said. “Time is a healer and there were things that had happened previously.

"It took a while for both of us to realise that we weren’t communicating very well and the huge responsibility we have to the fans to do the right thing for the club.

“I believe that the Hicks family are communicating better with us and we’re communicating better with them and I think that will be much better for the club.”

The relationship between the men broke down when Gillett refused to sell his 50 per cent stake to Hicks. Gillett had instead wanted to discuss a deal with Dubai International Capital (DIC), the private equity investment arm of the Arab state. Hicks vetoed the move, resulting in an impasse between the owners.

Gillett refused to discuss whether he was still hoping to sell his shares, preferring to iterate his desire to back Rafael Benitez, the club's manager, in the transfer market.

He said: “All of us are focused on the transfer window and we want to be ready for that and we want to have adequate resources and good communication with Rafa and our hope is that we’re making better progress."

When asked for his appraisal of Liverpool's performance last season, he said: "I would rather let the fans make that decision. But for a club that has a history of winning trophies, any season that you don’t win one of the five or six trophies that we compete for, I suspect the fans, as well as the Hicks and Gilletts, are disappointed.

“But overall I felt that the team played quite well, particularly beginning and late. I think they were very representative and I think Torres was a wonderful selection.

“By summer I think the rest of the boys played quite well and we have to help Rafa try and be more competitive in the chase for the Premiership.”