Reds' £50m bid to win title and keep Fernando Torres
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REDS' £50M BID TO WIN TITLE AND KEEP TORRES
Spending spree on cards at Liverpool
TORRES: Wants Liverpool to spend big
LIVERPOOL are planning a £50million spending spree to knock Manchester United off their perch next season.
But it will need another summer squad cull to raise all the funds.
That is unlikely to be enough to satisfy worried striker Fernando Torres' demands for 'four or five' world-class signings.
The Merseysiders' will have an initial £25m to splash on recruits once they have secured new investment.
The rest of the transfer kitty must be drummed up through player sales, with Albert Riera and Yossi Benayoun the first high-profile departures.
Riera will be sold for £8m, with CSKA Moscow trying to secure a deal this week.
Benayoun has wanted out since the start of the season and will raise another £9m.
Liverpool already brought in another £8m through the January sale of Andrea Dossena and Andriy Voronin.
What is clear is the bid for 40 per cent of Liverpool from The Rhone Group will not herald the start of a vastly different era of investment in the squad.
The only way the Liverpool manager will be able secure the kind of fantasy football figures the fans crave is to ponder the unthinkable - by selling Torres for £80m.
Such a decision would create hysteria on the Kop, but it is not without precedent in Anfield history. Liverpool sold their record goalscorer Ian Rush in 1987 and used the money to buy John Barnes, John Aldridge, Peter Beardsley and Ray Houghton. These four world-class players formed the core of the most attractive team ever seen at Anfield.
Liverpool insist selling Torres (right) is not an option they are willing to discuss, even though they are well aware agents on behalf of Chelsea and Manchester City are making regular contact with the player's advisors.
Benitez still believes the striker, who turned 26 yesterday, will be loyal to Anfield. He has tried to play down fears of a superstar exodus from the club.
Asked if Liverpool fans should fear Torres will go, Benitez said: "I don't think so.
We don't want to sell Fernando to anybody. I can talk with him and we can go forward. He makes his own decisions but Fernando is a professional who plays hard and is really happy here.
"He knows we have a lot of good players at the club. If everything is fine on Sunday he will be very happy.
"The priority now is to concentrate on this year and if we can improve and stay in the top four it will be easier to talk about this. If we can't, we have to keep working and have the belief we will have good players and they will be good enough."
Benitez has been seeking talks with his board to assure him the proceeds of all transfers will be available to reinvest.
It is the lack of such guarantees which is leading the Spanish coach to believe his future is away from Anfield.
For their part, Liverpool have not quelled last weekend's claims Benitez's boardroom support is evaporating.
Publicly, the club insists everything is still to play for with fourth place and a Europa Cup triumph potentially redeeming a miserable campaign.
But there is a distinct eye on the future in both the manager's office and boardroom, with acknowledgement a decent climax will merely paper over the cracks of deep-rooted problems. Victory at Old Trafford today would prolong a rare, upbeat week on Merseyside, but will not disguise the drastic dip in Liverpool's fortunes since their 4-1 win at United a year ago.
A summer rebuild is a necessity, but where the money will come from to satisfy Torres is key to Liverpool's survival as part of the Euro elite.
A decision on the Rhone offer for 40 per cent of the club, revealed first in last week's Sport of the World, will be made within the next two weeks.
The Premier League need to know by March 31 how Liverpool intend to operate their business for the forthcoming financial year.
Failure to provide details will jeopardise the application for their UEFA license, as it did 12 months ago.
If they get the green light, the Rhone investors will not turn up at Anfield wearing Liverpool scarves, proclaiming Kevin Keegan a boyhood hero or making grand promises about £100m signings.
They are merely a bridge to appease the bank, reduce the boardroom power of Tom Hicks and George Gillett, make stadium funding feasible and for managing director Christian Purslow to ensure the club is run in a different way.
Benitez heads to Old Trafford today making familiar observations about the relative spending power of himself and Sir Alex Ferguson.
He believes his efforts to topple United have been ultimately sabotaged by lack of transfer funds.
BENITEZ: Proud of historyBenitez said: "In the past Liverpool were breaking all the records and making all the signings but over the last 13 years that is different.
"We have to be proud of the history but now we have to manage in a different way.
"I could read Sir Alex Ferguson's words about what he wanted to do when he became their manager but it is different now.
"If you talk about what they have and what we have, it is different, especially with money. We have to reduce this gap in the transfer market and on the pitch.
"If a rivalry is positive it can help. Not just in football but in life. But if it's negative it is a problem. The fans know it is a very important rivalry but we are talking about a game. We will try and do our best but the fans have to respect each other.
"This is a massive game. I know what the rivalry means but I am a professional and I try to concentrate on each game. But this is a big one."
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Wah... so much money for Rafa to spend again... Rafa so lucky...
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and buy on players like lucas, kuyt, riera, insua again
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Originally posted by Rooney9:
and buy on players like lucas, kuyt, riera, insua again
I tell you rafa is a shopoholic.
He just likes to buy and buy players and seldom uses them on the field.
Cure this addicition and maybe he will be more careful in buying better quality players instead of shopping for cheap bargains.
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with Rafa around, 500 miliion pounds also not enough.................they would make better use of that 50 million pound to pay off Rafa..............
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Who's the next manager? Jose?