Rafael Benitez believes Liverpool are only “one or two” top-class players away from a championship-winning side.
And the Anfield manager is convinced his team’s prolonged title challenge this season will make it easier to snap up his summer transfer targets.
While still harbouring hopes of overhauling Manchester United in the race for this season’s Premier League crown, Benitez is already planning for the new campaign.
The Spaniard is expected to be handed at least £20million by the Anfield board but has already conceded he must sell players to facilitate the required big-money transfers.
Although the pursuit of Valencia forward David Silva has momentarily stalled, Benitez is tracking a number of other high-profile targets.
And confident the spine of his side is already in place and bolstered by a crop of promising youngsters, the Anfield manager reckons his squad now requires just a touch of fine-tuning.
“The spine of the team is there,” said Benitez, whose team travel to West Ham United this evening. “We have very good players in the spine and that’s often the most important thing.
“We can improve a little bit in certain areas, but overall we don’t need to change a lot of players.
“When we first came here, we had to improve a lot and we often didn’t have the money or the options to bring all the players we wanted and we weren’t quite there.
“Now, everybody knows we are so close that if we want to bring a top-class player it will be easier. We can say ‘come to Liverpool as you will win trophies in the future’ and I think these players will come.
“We have some young players improving, and if they improve maybe we don’t need to bring anyone in. But clearly we need to bring in some quality players to take us a step forward.
“If we can keep the consistency of this year, then one or two players could make a massive difference. If we can keep Gerrard and Torres fit for most of the season, which will make a difference also.”
Benitez also expects young players such as David Ngog and Lucas Leiva to feature more prominently next season.
“Every year we try to improve the squad,” he said. “This squad now is much better than in the first year, so it makes it more difficult to improve.
“For example, we have Ngog who is a young player, has quality and talent, and if he keeps progressing then maybe he can be a solution in attack. But you never know, you can’t rush young players and their development, so maybe you have to bring other players in.”
And while mindful of the Champions League quota for homegrown players, Benitez believes quality and not nationality will again be the priority during the transfer window.
“We had the same problem this year,” he said. “We have two local players (Gerrard and Carragher) and we have youngsters Darby, Spearing, Kelly and Irwin, so we had young players we maybe didn’t use that much in the Champions League.
“Both the fans and the staff want good English players, but mainly good players. So if the good players are English, that is better.”
Both Fernando Torres and Javier Mascherano are available for this evening’s visit to Upton Park, although Xabi Alonso misses out as he continues to nurse the ankle injury sustained in the red-card challenge by Newcastle United’s Joey Barton last Sunday.
However, the Spaniard is expected to be fit for next week’s trip to West Bromwich Albion.
And the Anfield manager is convinced his team’s prolonged title challenge this season will make it easier to snap up his summer transfer targets.
While still harbouring hopes of overhauling Manchester United in the race for this season’s Premier League crown, Benitez is already planning for the new campaign.
The Spaniard is expected to be handed at least £20million by the Anfield board but has already conceded he must sell players to facilitate the required big-money transfers.
Although the pursuit of Valencia forward David Silva has momentarily stalled, Benitez is tracking a number of other high-profile targets.
And confident the spine of his side is already in place and bolstered by a crop of promising youngsters, the Anfield manager reckons his squad now requires just a touch of fine-tuning.
“The spine of the team is there,” said Benitez, whose team travel to West Ham United this evening. “We have very good players in the spine and that’s often the most important thing.
“We can improve a little bit in certain areas, but overall we don’t need to change a lot of players.
“When we first came here, we had to improve a lot and we often didn’t have the money or the options to bring all the players we wanted and we weren’t quite there.
“Now, everybody knows we are so close that if we want to bring a top-class player it will be easier. We can say ‘come to Liverpool as you will win trophies in the future’ and I think these players will come.
“We have some young players improving, and if they improve maybe we don’t need to bring anyone in. But clearly we need to bring in some quality players to take us a step forward.
“If we can keep the consistency of this year, then one or two players could make a massive difference. If we can keep Gerrard and Torres fit for most of the season, which will make a difference also.”
Benitez also expects young players such as David Ngog and Lucas Leiva to feature more prominently next season.
“Every year we try to improve the squad,” he said. “This squad now is much better than in the first year, so it makes it more difficult to improve.
“For example, we have Ngog who is a young player, has quality and talent, and if he keeps progressing then maybe he can be a solution in attack. But you never know, you can’t rush young players and their development, so maybe you have to bring other players in.”
And while mindful of the Champions League quota for homegrown players, Benitez believes quality and not nationality will again be the priority during the transfer window.
“We had the same problem this year,” he said. “We have two local players (Gerrard and Carragher) and we have youngsters Darby, Spearing, Kelly and Irwin, so we had young players we maybe didn’t use that much in the Champions League.
“Both the fans and the staff want good English players, but mainly good players. So if the good players are English, that is better.”
Both Fernando Torres and Javier Mascherano are available for this evening’s visit to Upton Park, although Xabi Alonso misses out as he continues to nurse the ankle injury sustained in the red-card challenge by Newcastle United’s Joey Barton last Sunday.
However, the Spaniard is expected to be fit for next week’s trip to West Bromwich Albion.
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