Zenden and Gonzalez to leave as Benitez begins clear-out

The Liverpool boss has told midfielder Bolo Zenden he is free to talk to other clubs with his contract due to expire, while Chile winger Mark Gonzalez is on the brink of a £5m move to Real Betis.

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And with offers likely to be on the table for striker Craig Bellamy, who could not even get off the bench in last night's 2-1 defeat here by AC Milan, the Welsh forward could also have played his last game for the club.

With Robbie Fowler and Jerzy Dudek already released, this is just the start of a major overhaul of Benitez's squad.

More will soon follow with the Spanish manager having told the club's new owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett that it will need £100m-plus to revamp a squad that finished third in the Premier League but were miles behind champions Manchester United.

Benitez has already outlined his plans to the new regime, and he was brutally frank in outlining Liverpool's future this morning at the team hotel ahead of the flight back to Merseyside.

He said: "We must not waste this moment. We must move quickly to sign our number one targets.

"If we wait we will be chasing the players who are second and third on our list. We need to change the structure of the club on and off the pitch.

"We must make progress, and make it now to take us up two or three levels straight away."

Benitez has his scouting department working overtime, despite the fact that the club's chief scout Frank McParland is joining Bolton and former Liverpool coach Sammy Lee.

But Benitez will not want to mark time in the wake of the Athens defeat, and he said: "There will be several players leaving. We will wait for offers.

"I have been told by the new owners that they will back my plans. But when you look at the champions Manchester United spending £20m on a midfield player, and we have been paying just £8 to £9m for our strikers, you know what must be done.

"We must spend big and spend now. Our fans know what we need to do and so do I. We need to pay the price needed for each position.

"We have a deal nearly completed for Gonzalez and I have told Bolo (Zenden) that he can talk to other clubs. We know the situation we have now.

"We have finished 21 points behind United and 15 behind Chelsea.

"They will both spend big money again and we will just be marking time. If we continue the way we are we will be fighting for fourth spot again at the end of the season, and we cannot have that all the time."

He added: "Everybody can see what we must do to compete at the top level and we must move as quickly as possible not to lose this opportunity.

"Two seasons ago we got 82 points, a club record, and we could not get into the top two. If we do not improve now we will always be fighting for fourth spot.

"It is obvious we do not have enough players for nine months competing in four competitions."