The Liverpool manager, Rafa Benítez, says winning the Premier League next season is just "an option". That is unlikely to please the club's owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, who want the Spaniard to lead Liverpool to their first league championship since 1990 as a priority.

Benítez feels the league is harder to win than when he joined Liverpool in 2004 but he implied yesterday that the Americans, who are locked in a bitter power struggle, are an obstacle with the Reds unable to match the spending power of Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal.

"It's more difficult because after two years of Chelsea winning the league and spending big money, United needed to do the same," Benítez said. "They started spending big money and Arsenal were also spending big money on young players. We are trying to do the same but because they are continuing to spend big money, it makes it more difficult to catch up ... We will try to do our best and the key for me is to not talk about the title."

Benítez brought the European Cup back to Anfield in 2005 after a 21-year absence and has stressed his preference is for European competition. His side have consistently fallen short in the league - Liverpool finished fourth last season, 11 points adrift of Manchester United. Enhancing the squad is even tougher with the Anfield civil war showing no signs of a resolution. He has warned the owners that teams below Liverpool are spending big money in an attempt to break into the "Big Four" and qualify for the Champions League.

The Arsenal manager, Arsène Wenger, said at the weekend there was a possibility that theFrance midfielder Samir Nasri could join the London club from Marseille. "There is a chance it could happen," Wenger told the French television channel TF1. "If it did [happen], it would be before Euro 2008."

Nasri's agent said earlier this month that Arsenal had made an offer for the 20-year-old. The France and Bayern Munich winger Franck Ribéry also confirmed that Nasri's representatives were in contact with the north London club over a potential transfer. "It is good for him," said Ribery. "It [Arsenal] is a good club with many young people. But the English championship is completely different; he will have to adapt in order to impose himself."