Mourinho IN, Parry OUT at Liverpool?

The media are running two surprising stories this morning; firstly that José Mourinho has been approached by Liverpool’s current American owners through an intermediary and secondly that chief executive Rick Parry will announce his departure from the Merseyside club later today.

Are the stories related?  I doubt it very much, but the pieces are very coincidental.

.

“An insider” (cough!) has stated that Mourinho has already been approached:

 .

“The Americans had read Mourinho was interested in returning to the Premier League and wanted to know if he meant it.

 .

“But it wasn’t a firm approach or a job offer. It was more a case of testing the water in case Rafa did decide to walk out.”

.

The Mourinho rumour has done the rounds in the media previously.  The Special One been linked to Liverpool in the past but also cited as a natural replacement for Ferguson when he steps down from the helm at Old Trafford.

Parry has made no secret of his dislike for Mourinho but in all likelihood his departure has much more to do with the power struggle with Benitez relating to the Spaniards new contract and his frosty relationship with Tom Hicks, however, with Parry gone this would leave the way clear for any new buyers to put in place their own chief executive with minimum controversy – new buyers either found by Hicks and Gilet or by the government owned RBS should they foreclose in the summer.

The Liverpool Echo claims a “world exclusive”:

The ECHO understands Parry’s departure by mutual consent will be officially announced by Liverpool later today.

The long serving chief executive will not leave with immediate effect though with all parties in agreement that he will remain in position until the end of the current season.

There does also exist the possibility that Benitez will not sign a new contract – that depends on Hicks and Gilet´s approach over how they think a new buyer may accept already having Benitez tied in to the club on a new contract and the consequent compensation payment they would have to make if they want to put their own manager in place.

It also remains to be seen how Benitez takes these "Hicks and Gilet approached Mourinho" rumours after already suffering the indignity of learning that they had done the same with Klinnsman previously.

I would imagine that when Mourinho returns to the Premier League it would be to Chelsea (or at last Abramovich would have first dibs if Mourinho became available).