Rafael Benitez has lifted the lid on his turbulent relationship with former Liverpool owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett as the club struggled with mounting debts.

Hicks and Gillett sold the Reds to Boston-based investment company New England Sports Ventures (now Fenway Sports Group), in October 2010 after running up debts of over £300m, and Benitez has explained how difficult he felt his job became in his final season at Anfield.

"For five years I had been a football manager at Liverpool. By the start of my sixth, it was clear I had become something else entirely. I was suddenly supposed to be a bank manager," Benitez wrote in his new book Champions League Dreams, according to The Mirror.

"Decisions were being made to appease the banks, not the fans. Attempting to work in the transfer market that summer (2009) was almost impossible.

"The money, which we wanted to use to take Liverpool on to the next level, was all gone. Liverpool, though, was no longer a football club. It was a business."

The former Valencia and Inter boss left Liverpool in 2010 after a seventh-place finish in the Premier League.