Gillett 'has faith' in Benitez

Benitez met with Gillett and co-owner Tom Hicks hours after Sunday's 1-0 defeat to Manchester United at Anfield. The peace summit had been planned for a number of weeks after the trio suffered a highly-publicised fallout over the American tycoons' transfer policy, casting doubt over Benitez's position.

However, Gillett told a meeting of the Liverpool Former Players' Association: "Rafa is the one we want as manager further on, and we have faith in him. We concentrated on getting an overview over the situation, and I felt we accomplished that."

And Gillett continued his support for the Spaniard telling the Liverpool Echo: "This wasn't supposed to happen, but it has happened, and now the focus has to be on finding a common platform to continue our co-operation."

Despite this, Gillett hinted a decision has yet to be made on Liverpool's transfer policy in the January transfer window.

That may further frustrate Benitez, who insisted in his criticism of the owners that he feared missing out on his top targets if he was not given the go-ahead to pursue them long before the window opened.

"The transfer window opens soon and we might use the option that gives us, or we might not," Gillett added. "Liverpool is a great club. We are well aware that we have something very valuable in our hands."

One of Gillett and Hicks' first acts after their takeover was to commit funds to the club's proposed stadium move. Those plans suffered a setback on Monday after Rick Parry confirmed they had been forced to scrap their futuristic design.

Liverpool's chief executive insists this was because of spiralling costs, not due to the 'credit crunch' in America and he sought to reassure fans the club remain confident a new stadium will be delivered on time.

Parry said: "We are now considering two schemes but the stadium will be a 70,000-seater. The new stadium will be a significant improvement on the original plans and a slightly downgraded version of the new ones."