The Huge Challenge

The meeting was held in the tactical preparation room at Melwood.

Besides the First Team players, Benitez's core coaching staff were also in attendance. Rick Parry was present as the club's general manager, but the meeting was chaired by Chief Assistant Coach Jesper.

Not long ago, rumors had been flying that Benitez would leave Liverpool this summer. When Rick Parry was interviewed by the media at the time, he had replied, "No comment," sending the media into a frenzy and leaving Liverpool's fans deeply worried.

Everyone knew that "no comment" was essentially an admission.

The media then dug deeper, and the conflict between Rick Parry and Benitez became increasingly obvious. The press kept unearthing and sensationalizing it, widening the rift between the two men. At one point, there were even rumors that Melwood, under Benitez's leadership, and Anfield, under Rick Parry's leadership, were openly competing with each other.

But now that Rick Parry had come to Melwood, many of those rumors had fallen apart on their own.

This also helped stabilize the team's morale.

Yang Yang was the core of the team's dressing room. His status and influence were no lower than Captain Gerrard's—in fact, they were even greater—so he naturally received more and deeper news and information than everyone else.

The conflict between Rick Parry and Benitez did exist, but it was nowhere near as serious as the outside world claimed.

Ultimately, their differences came from the club's two American owners.

Rick Parry had chosen to support Hicks, while Benitez had grown closer to Gillett. The disagreement between the two American owners had originally concerned capital operations, but as Liverpool's debt restructuring progressed, it had begun affecting the club's internal operations, including transfer fees and various other matters.

Under these circumstances, Rick Parry was responsible for the club's overall