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Benayoun quashes rumors of leaving beloved Liverpool By Moshe Boker Tags: Liverpool, Yossi Benayoun "It seems the media in Israel and England are in a contest to see who's more bored during the slow summer months," Yossi Benayoun said cynically over the weekend. The Liverpool midfielder added angrily: "The media in England published a story Friday that Rafael Benitez told me finally that I'm staying at Liverpool. These reports are the work of the writer's imagination because even before the season ended, we determined that I would be staying." We caught Benayoun just as he was leaving Liverpool's locker room at the team's training camp ahead of the new season. He is sick of all the stories about his expected transfer to another club, which appeared both in Israel and England, and has decided to put an end them. "Benitez told me unequivocably that he brought me here, that I had a very good season, that he's depending on me and that there's no way I'll leave Liverpool," says Benayoun, who stresses, "I have very good chemistry with Benitez. He loves me. He brought me. I really enjoy being with him - moreover, I had an excellent season. I even surprised myself. Benitez didn't want to hear and isn't prepared to hear about any possibility of letting me go at any price." Advertisement As if that weren't clear enough, Benayoun added: "It's not on the table now, not for him or me. If Benitez thinks otherwise, he would have said it to my face." Benayoun, who visited Israel during the off-season, received and rejected three offers from other English teams. "Liverpool is good for me, and it was always clear I want to stay and Liverpool wants me," he asserts. "I got better offers financially, but these tempting offers don't change my mind." Another matter bugging Benayoun is a report that Benitez would sell him to have cash in hand. "It's idle chatter from the land of idle chatter, just inventions of the English press," he says. Benayoun adds that never in his whole career has a team wanted to release him - rather, the opposite: He is the one who always asked to leave. To make his point clear, he says: "If Liverpool wouldn't want me, I'd leave there in seconds. Even if I had a contract but I understood they didn't want me, I'd get up right away and leave." He notes that it flatters him and makes him feel good to receive lucrative offers, but that's it. "I'm not leaving Liverpool," he concludes. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Prisoner exchange Israel signs swap deal, begins exhuming bodies of Hezbollah guerillas. Provocative questions Gaydamak tells TAU student to 'shut up and go to hell' over Angola question.

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