Liverpool braced for battle in boardroom

On the pitch Liverpool march back into Champions' League combat this week, while off it the key shareholder Steve Morgan is once again emerging as a major player in the club's financial future.

The Liverpool manager, Rafael Benitez, will be looking for a confidence-boosting victory over Galatasaray tomorrow, but there is almost as much interest in the boardroom politics as Liverpool struggle to find the £180m it will cost to start work on their new stadium. They are being asked by local councillors and officials who hold the purse strings to £20m of European and government grants, to prove they have the cash by the end of the week.

Whether they can do that depends on the outcome of more informal talks between Morgan, the club's third-largest shareholder and the board. Sources close to Morgan insist that the building tycoon, who has moved back to the area from Jersey and now lives in Cheshire, has not as yet made his fifth bid to buy his way on to the board.

He has also rejected any suggestion that he would be willing to become part of a consortium to buy out the chairman, David Moores.

The source said: "There are senior shareholders who want to see Morgan and Moores work together on the same board, but Morgan has not made another bid just yet and won't become involved with anyone else. He prefers to row his own boat on such things."

Morgan and Moores have been at loggerheads for years over who owns and runs the club, and Moores, the majority shareholder, has always blocked Morgan's desire for a seat on the board. But with time running out on Liverpool's bid to put together a financial package to keep their stadium plans on course, Morgan could become the pivotal player over the next few months.

The key could be whether Moores is prepared to release 15,000 of unsold shares, which Morgan could buy. Shares are valued at around £3,300 at the moment, and that could bring £50m of Morgan's money into the club.

The board are currently considering other proposals, one from a Dubai investment fund and another believed to be from a southern-based consortium. But there are now prominent voices inside Anfield who would like to see Morgan and Moores and work together for the future of the club.

That will be decided over the next few months, while Benitez will hope to have more Champions' League points on the board by then to secure the side's immediate future on the pitch.

A repeat of Saturday's 3-0 win over Spurs, a game which saw the Chile winger Mark Gonzalez score his first League goal for the club, would certainly fit the bill. Gonzalez believes there is plenty more to come from him as he said: "I like it that all the fans knew me and were watching me before I joined the club, because then they know the kind of player you are and the qualities you have.

"Now it's up to me to show them, because if people know what to expect, there's no reason why you can't show it. I feel I can contribute a lot of goals here, scoring and creating, just like I did in Spain [at Albacete and Real Sociedad]. I always look for goals, and I think I'm the type of player who can get them.

"I want to show everything I have in my game. Right now I don't think I've shown everything for many reasons. I've not played a lot and I'm not used to English football yet.

"Hopefully that won't take long, but it's not easy. As soon as I adjust I'm sure I will be a different player. I'm happy with what I've done for now, with scoring two goals, but I'm determined to do a lot more."