Benitez persistently demanded extra transfer funds to acquire new faces in the winter break, but American tycoons George Gillet and Hicks replied by advising him to 'concentrate on the current team'.

However, the former Valencia coach responded sarcastically in a press conference last month, much to the frustration of Hicks.

"We wanted to see what we could do with the players we had already bought," he told Sports Illustrated.

"We just wanted to see if the team was going to gel. Then he went to a press conference and kind of pouted and answered in the same way 20 times: 'I'm focusing on my team.'

"The media made up everything from that point forward. They made up that we were going to fire him, that I told him to shut up, that there was a battle between Benitez and the Americans. It's really funny to watch."

Benitez was one of the Premiership's highest spenders over last summer, landing the likes of Ryan Babel, Yossi Benayoun, Lucas and club record signing Fernando Torres.