English Premier League:Rafael Benitez was left in no doubt as to where the power lies at Liverpool yesterday when he was publicly ordered to "quit talking about new players and to coach the players we have" by the club's co-chairman Tom Hicks.

The divisions that threaten Benitez's future at the club and were exposed by the manager's bizarre performance on Thursday have deepened recently. Liverpool's co-owners - Hicks and George Gillett - were infuriated by the Spaniard's second public challenge to their financial policy in the space of seven months.

Although Benitez would not elaborate on his latest frustrations his conduct at the Melwood training complex on Thursday - where he offered himself for the vacant England job and refused to commit his future to Liverpool - represented a deliberate challenge to Hicks and Gillett over what he perceives as their hesitancy in the transfer market.

Benitez's mantra of "I am focused on training and coaching my team" - which he repeated several times on Thursday - was a sarcastic repetition of an instruction that had just previously been received from the Americans. Though Gillett and Hicks later responded with a considered joint statement, the depth of their anger became apparent yesterday when the latter delivered a brutal public rebuke that has backed the club's belligerent manager into a corner.

Hicks said: "After the Champions League final in Athens (in May) Rafa made certain demands of us and we responded to those demands in the summer. We brought in some good players and spent more money than has ever been spent before at this club. We now have some crucial games coming up in the Premiership and the Champions League and we want to see if we can win these games with the players we have.

"This was the message we gave to Rafa recently and I think during the international break he must have grown a bit frustrated about this. We told him to concentrate on the games coming up and nothing else and I guess he didn't like that. But for the time being we just need to be focused on what happens on the pitch.

"George and I will be over [from the United States] in mid-December and that is the time to talk about other issues. It is really time for Rafa to quit talking about new players and to coach the players we have."

While it is questionable that Liverpool spent more money this summer than at any period in their history - they spent approximately €61 million on new talent but recouped half of that sum through sales - the potential repercussions of the internal divisions are evident, with the club's owners no longer prepared to acquiesce with the manager.

Hicks and Gillett want signs of a genuine title challenge from their investment when they attend the game against Manchester United on December 16th and hold a meeting with Benitez that will shape his future.

The current split in the Anfield hierarchy might well be overcome if the Liverpool manager arrives at that meeting having secured a place in the Champions League knock-out phase after the game in Marseille five days previously. In those circumstances his transfer budget for January would improve, albeit belatedly as far as Benitez would be concerned.

Should United arrive at Anfield further ahead in the Premier League than they are now (six points) and with Liverpool out of the Champions League, however, the transfer budget on offer will prove to be far short of the manager's expectations.

Hicks and Gillett are committed to repayments on a new €700 million loan secured against the club.

In the meantime Hicks and Gillett have told Benitez that a repeat of his public discontent will not be tolerated. There was an uneasy truce between the warring factions following Hicks's blunt appraisal yesterday, with the Liverpool manager said to be more relaxed and convivial than he had been 24 hours earlier.

Benitez flew to Newcastle last night with the Liverpool squad, ahead of this lunchtime's game at St James' Park. Also in the travelling party was Rick Parry, the Anfield chief executive whose relations with the Spaniard have also been strained recently over the manager's insistence that deals for a central defender, such as Ezequiel Garay of Racing Santander, the on-loan midfielder Javier Mascherano and a striker - in the event of Peter Crouch's departure - should be in place long before the Americans finalise their January budget.

• Guardian Service