The transfer merry-go-round has begun to turn once again as we approach the summer when all there is to talk about is who you would like your club to sign. For Liverpool top of their list appears to be Gareth Barry from Aston Villa, and David Villa and Raul Albiol from Valencia. The problem for the Reds is that their cash flow isn’t the best at the moment, what with George Gillett and Tom Hicks plunging the club into massive amounts of debt and being unable to fund the repayments.

So what to do for Rafael Benitez’s nearly men? Well the obvious answer is to sell some players but then that will leave the Spaniard and his band of merry men in the same position they find themselves this season. For the majority of the season questions have been asked of Liverpool’s strength in depth, or apparent lack of it. Talking to a couple of Liverpool fans last week they all said the same thing, they have 11 good players but they don’t have the replacements that will do the same job for the side.

The problem for Benitez is that no one is going to want his average squad players, not at the prices they will need to charge if they are going to pay the £40million asking price for Villa. So then they will have to sell one or two of their decent players which leaves them just replacing a good player with one who may or may not work out at the club. In essence then Liverpool will still have 11 good players and a rubbish bench, a side worthy of finishing runners-up once again.

Here’s hoping I don’t have to eat those words come the end of the season but winning the title is the only way I can see Mr Gillett and Mr Hicks digging into their wallets for a bit of extra cash rather than forcing Benitez to become the Del Boy of the Premier League transfer market.

As for those who I think Benitez may be forced to sell off well Sami Hyypia is the first name that springs to mind with the defender now getting on a bit. The second would be Xabi Alonso who, despite having an excellent season, still isn’t reportedly seeing eye-to-eye with Rafa. My third and final pick to be given the boot from Anfield, should it be necessary, is Andreas Dossena after his terrible first season in English football.

Now watch none of those three leave in the summer as Liverpool upset the football odds and find a treasure chest from somewhere. If they don’t happen to make such a discovery then they will continue to go around in circles unless they give the team the strength in depth it needs to avoid being number two for a second season.