With the soap opera in full swing I thought I would take a look at what areas we can expect Benitez to look to strengthen this summer. Considering it was a lack of goals that cost Liverpool so dearly last season I thought I’d start with the attack.

To say the lack of goals is the fault of the strikers is true, but a little unfair. Crouch’s 18 goals, Kuyt’s 14, Bellamy’s 9 and Fowler’s 7 are a healthy enough return. If the rest of the team had chipped in with their fair share of goals it might have even gone unnoticed that none of the four strikers at the club had passed the 20 goal mark.

The midfield needs to look at itself as while Lampard and Ronaldo scored bucket loads for Chelsea and Man Utd respectively, Liverpool’s highest scoring midfielder was Steven Gerrard on 11 with the next being Luis Garcia on 6. The supply to the strikers must also be a concern for Benitez this summer, but the fact remains that of the four strikers on the clubs books last season none of them could be relied on to score the big goals regularly.

Since Michael Owen’s departure in the summer of 2004 Liverpool have lacked a number one striker. Someone who stands up and takes the responsibility to score the important goals. It is vital that Benitez finds this kind of striker this summer.

Fowler has already been released and replaced by Andriy Voronin, and Bellamy is waiting, with his golf clubs packed, for someone to match Liverpool’s £12m valuation. Kuyt and Crouch are sticking around, but their involvement will depend on the type of striker that is brought in, and indeed on how many.

So what are Benitez’s options? If the media are to believed it’ll be someone from David Villa, Samuel Eto’o, Fernando Torres, Michael Owen, Darren Bent, Diego Millito, Jermaine Defoe.

The Villa deal seems a non starter as he has a very high buy out clause and neither the club nor the player have expressed any desire to part company as of yet. Eto’o looks ready to leave Barcelona but there are sure to be plenty of takers even if the price goes as high as £35m. Just how much money Liverpool have to spend on a striker is unclear so I have my doubts that they can compete at that price. Of course if the likes of Chelsea don’t get involved it might be a more reasonable £25m. Still, it might be out of Liverpool’s price range.

Fernando Torres on the other hand looks very likely. He’s been linked with a move away from Athletico Madrid for the last few years now and their failure to qualify for the UEFA Cup should be the final straw for player and club. His price should be the right side of £20m and therefore has to be within range. Having “You’ll Never Walk Alone” writen on the inside of his captain’s armband and accidently letting it be seen earlier in the season is as clear a “come and get me” as you will ever see. I think that he is up for the move if Benitez decides to take him.

It’s hardly a secret that Michael Owen and Darren Bent would like to move to Liverpool. Owen’s return would, I believe, be a good thing for Liverpool. I don’t go along with the “he screwed the club” way of thinking or the “injury prone” nonsense. Michael Owen has always scored goals and is proven in the Premiership. Liverpool know what they would be getting with Owen and at £9m only a fool wouldn’t be interested. Bent is younger than Owen but isn’t proven at the highest level. I doubt he is Benitez’s no.1 target, but he is certainly under consideration. £17m is a ridiculous price for a player who has struggled to score against the big teams and who is unproven at the highest level. Rumour has it that Liverpool bid £10m for him (and that is why he rejected West Ham) and are willing to go to £12m. The fact that Bent was willing to reject £75,000 a week for a chance to play for Liverpool is a sign he has the type of character we like at Liverpool, but Owen still seems a better option.

Millito is the one I know least about. Those who have seen him play tell me he has a good eye for goal, is good in the air and while he isn’t the quickest is not slow either. He has a good goal scoring record in La Liga, but I find what passes for defending over there to be most amusing! A story emerged on the net yesterday that Liverpool have offered £13m for him so he looks to have done something to impress Benitez. The name of Jermaine Defoe keeps cropping up whenever the transfer window opens. I would be surprised if he was signed. He looks a decent player, but he has done so for a few years now without much improvement.

Goal scoring ability has to be what decides the striker Liverpool buy this summer. With Bellamy leaving they have a front line that isn’t exactly blessed with speed so some pace would also be a nice addition. Whether that means signing two strikers or whether they can land a man who has both in his locker remains to be seen.

For me it would be Eto’o and Owen. Eto’o is big and fast and knows how to use those attributes. His goal scoring record is one of the best in the World so in short he is just what Liverpool need. There is the danger that it could take him a while to adapt to the Premiership and he is off to the African Nation’s Cup in January/February so I would also sign Owen to take the pressure off him and cover for him during the Cup. The signing of Eto’o is unrealistic but Torres would do fine. I’d still sign Owen as well to give Torres time to adapt.

There is one other striker who has been linked to Liverpool this summer and that is Thierry Henry. Obviously this would be a dream signing. I don’t care that he is nearly 30 or that he was injured for large parts of last season. Thierry Henry is one of the best strikers the Premiership has ever seen and he would link the midfield and the attack beautifully at Liverpool. It’s one of those transfers you should not let yourself even consider. If the price was right though, you just never know in football…

As I mentioned before the transfer window is now open for signing players in preparation for the 2007/08 season. Every time the transfer window opens we get enough twists and turns to rival any soap opera. Already this one has not disappointed.

As Liverpool fans we are used to going from the ecstasy of Zidane to sign rumours to the reality of Luis Garcia. This summer we were supposed to get to sit back and enjoy Benitez bringing in the big names with a War Chest to rival Chelsea’s transfer budget, but as yet it has not happened. The problem with this expectation is that even if Benitez had the kind of transfer budget that Chelsea have had since Roman Abramovich changed the face of the Premiership, he wouldn’t pay the kind of prices Chelsea have been paying for players. As the doom and gloom sets in on many a Liverpool supporter’s summer it is time to take a more realistic look at what’s been going on.

On the 24th of May, Benitez ended the Honeymoon period of the new owners when he went public about his frustrations with the pace of Liverpool’s plans for signing new players. Since then only Andriy Voronin, 20 year old Brazilian Lucas Leiva, and two Hungarian stars for the future, Krisztián Németh and András Simon have been officially signed. There has been talk of more signings including Sebastián Leto £2.5million from Club Atlético Lanús, Gary Mackay Steven from Ross County, Alexander Kacaniklic £75,000 from Helsingborgs IF. As is usual with players who are not bought to go straight into the first team squad the news is slower to come through but I expect most, if not all, of these players to be on Liverpool’s books by the 1st of September. While this list may not excite most fans there is enough in there to make me question the current tirade of dooms day stories coming from the media.

Included in the Németh and Simon transfer is an agreement with their former club, MTK Hungária FC, to become a feeder club for Liverpool. Not something that costs that much money but a sign none the less that the club are looking towards the future as well as the present. Lucas Leiva cost anything between £6m and £8m depending on which story you read which is a very significant figure to pay for a 20 year old and a significant indicator of Liverpool having money to spend. If the other deals do come off it is reported that Leto, another 20 year old - but this time for the left-wing, will cost a further £2.5m. This means Liverpool have spent anything from £6m to £10.5m on 20 year old players at a time when the media would have you believe that they only have £10m to spend on a new striker.

Another indicator of all being well at Liverpool is the fact that their biggest names have all signed contract extensions. Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher led the way and were soon followed by Jose Reina and Xabi Alonso. Steve Finnan and Momo Sissoko are reported to have signed their contract also and I expect that news to become official when the players return to training in July.

If the new owners were not forthcoming with funds, why would Benitez spend so much money on youth players? Why would he give nice big contract extensions to his big stars? Why would the big stars sign these contracts if they didn’t have assurances about the future of the club? And why would Benitez not cash in on one of his much sought after central midfielders to raise more funds for new payers?

I believe that there is money there to sign who Benitez wants. Not necessarily to sign the biggest players in the World, but to sign the players Benitez has identified as his number one targets for the positions he thinks need strengthening. Who those players are remains to be seen, but I believe that they will be signed in time to start pre-season training with Liverpool FC.

The Spanish league finishes today. Things will get a lot more interesting in Liverpool’s transfer market very soon…

Did you even know that American Football was played in Cork? Possibly not. Which may be why American Football team Cork Admirals posed provocatively for Cork Now magazine.

The gallery of three images of towel-clad American Football players can be seen here.

In a quote oddly reminiscent of Fight Club linemen Robert Henessey and Patrick du Boucher allegedly had this to say,

“nervous?, No, people need to see how a real man looks, none of these gloryboys are real men, I was even trying to show a bit of my hairy leg from under my towel in some of the shots!”

Lovely thanks lads. That’s Patrick jumping by the way.

The pictures are circulating of the new kits that Liverpool will release this summer.

Under agreements with the fans Liverpool FC release a new home kit every second year and a new away kit every year. Every so often they throw in a European kit to make a bit more money, but since Addidas returned to making the kits last season they have released a new away kit for Europe every summer too. I’m not too happy about this and although I liked the kit I didn’t buy last season’s European away jearsey. We wore it twice in Europe and ended up having to wear the regular away jearsey instead a few times due to colour clashes. We’ll worth the money I’m sure! This season’s away kit for Europe doesn’t look too good. Black just isn’t the right colour for a Liverpool kit.

I’ll probably buy the white one but not sure about the black one. There should be less colour clashes with a black kit but I still wonder how many times we’ll actually wear it. For me Liverpool home kits should always be red, and all red at that. Liverpool’s away kits should rotate between white, yellow and green. I also believe that the away kits should be for 2 years as well. I know that the second strip becomes the following year’s third strip - ie. the yellow second choice strip from the season just gone will be next season’s third choice strip - but they still don’t get worn often enough for the money fans are asked to pay.

The transfer window has been open for 2 and a half weeks now (since the Premiership season ended). Liverpool fans all over the web are getting nervous and even Benitez has been angered by the slow pace of things [thanks to Bif for this article]. I must say I’m not worried though.

The club have already moved to sign a few young players, signed Andre Voronin and have added more potential first teamers.

By all accounts Lyon’s Florent Malouda will sign within a week for a fee of between £8m and £10m, and is in Liverpool as I type, to complete a medical. Malouda was voted player of the year in France and looks a decent player. I don’t know that much about him but with Zenden and Gonzalez leaving we could do with another left-winger. This guy seems to score goals too which Liverpool need from all parts of the pitch. I would imagine that we’ll sign another left-winger though to compete with him and probably start as first choice. Simao has been strongly linked but that one’s not fitting for me.

On the other side of the pitch it looks like the attention has been focused on Roma’s Alessandro Faiolhe Amantino Mancini. While Malouda doesn’t seem like someone who’ll set the World alight, Mancini looks a very gifted prospect indeed. In my opinion Liverpool are lacking the kind of arrogance (not too much mind, we are LFC) and flair that a player like this can bring. There are no figures being quoted at this point but you can be sure it would be £15M up. From the looks of things he’d be well worth the risk.

These two would do very nicely. For starters…