Steven Gerrard wants three or four. Fernando Torres four or five and Jamie Carragher reckons Liverpool need five or six new players of quality. Add them all together and you might have a more realistic number.
All managers aspire to a comfortable situation in which two players of relatively equal merit are fighting to start but when Rafa Benitez checked his squad on to the bus for the long haul to Madrid the reality was somewhat different.
A motley collection of young, old and bewildered players which cost about £230m to assemble now carry the fate of Liverpool at their feet.
The club has a big 'For Sale' sticker attached and everyone knows that the only way Liverpool can remain a force in Premier League and European football is via massive investment -- calculated at £1bn by some.
There was a time when a number like that was virtually incomprehensible but in our world, whoever buys Liverpool and spends that sort of money on the project is getting a bargain. Here in Ireland, we're spending many, many billions on nothing at all and we have a bitter, bitter understanding of the maths.
Everything about Liverpool at the moment is as shaky and hollow as an Irish bank. They have much in common, both burdened by unmanageable debt but still paying out huge salaries.
But the banks have us to bail them out. Benitez only has the players around him and for six months, the big earners haven't been near good enough.
Gerrard glares at the world through hooded eyebrows while Torres, the club's last great hope, took the long road to Spain for an operation which gives him a chance of playing some significant role in the World Cup for his country but leaves his club without a recognised striker.
Benitez looked sharp and efficient when he first arrived from Valencia six years ago and quickly established a reputation as a man who could say nothing at all with great courtesy and good humour.
But these days he often looks as if he could do with a shave and he says far too much badly. In fact, his demeanour became shifty once he began to cultivate face hair and opened up with both barrels on Alex Ferguson -- never a good plan unless you have substance to match the rhetoric.
It was a moment of arrogance on Benitez's part which he has never really recovered from. Up until that point in December 2009, Benitez was universally admired as an honourable man and a good manager working in difficult circumstances although there were conscientious objectors like Ronnie Whelan who believed that there was already too much evidence of bad judgement for comfort.
But from the moment he chose to redesign his image and emerged wild-eyed, red-faced and ready to trade verbal blows on an equal footing with Fergie, the tide turned among neutrals.
It turned, too, in the Premier League and Liverpool have been in effective decline ever since. The peak reached just before Christmas 2008 was as good as it's going to be for a long time.
Neutral football lovers understood the scale of Liverpool's problems long before the Kop did but Benitez's failings became wrapped up in supporters' dislike of Hicks and Gillett.
Benitez wrapped the popular vote around him and went into a boardroom battle with Rick Parry which he ultimately won.
It has proven to be a very empty victory indeed. With the only big lump of cash spent since Parry left, Benitez chose to invest heavily in Alberto Aquilani who, according to his manager, is too soft for English football.
Even Parry might have chosen better than that.
After a series of questionable and sometimes downright irrational transfer deals in and out of Anfield, Benitez flunked his first solo test. Nobody else to blame for Aquilani but the manager.
Thursday night’s Europa League assignment is nothing more than a distraction from the most important work being done by Liverpool at the moment. The urgent search for a buyer is all-important.
But Benitez will hope that success in a competition which was on nobody's list of targets when Liverpool kicked off the season back in August full of optimism and hunger, will serve him on two fronts.
If there is any truth in tales of a Chinese zillionaire ready to invest and there's a big bankroll at Anfield next season, Benitez would clearly fancy a go even if that would be a disaster for the club.
An unlikely fourth place and Champions League football would be ideal, but the Europa League sitting in the Anfield trophy room would at least give him chips to play with.
Speculation that there has already been communication between potential new owners and Benitez suggest he's in the game at least.
In fact, Benitez is now in a pretty good position all told. He will bank a fortune if Liverpool cancel his contract and by the looks of things, he has a decent fallback position at Juventus. Another trinket always helps in salary negotiations. And he could walk into another well paid job leaving an awful mess behind him.
Even with a big budget, a top quality new manager will struggle to build a squad capable of squaring up to Manchester United and Chelsea at Anfield.
Manchester City is now the benchmark for Liverpool and that can't be easy to admit for fans reared on Shankly, Paisley, Fagan and Dalglish or even the Istanbul generation.
Manchester United make new memories every season and for their fans, success never grows old, even if Alex Ferguson does and moves ever closer to the day when he will leave Old Trafford bereft and searching for some way to plug an even bigger hole than the one Matt Busby left when he finally retired.
It took 26 years for Manchester United to climb back to the top of the English game and into a dominant position. While they struggled, Liverpool etched new standards of brilliance on every trophy plate available.
Two decades have passed since Kenny Dalglish stepped down, over-burdened by the stress of life at Anfield and still grieving for those lost at Heysel and Hillsborough. And in that period, Ferguson has rewritten the history books and balanced the ledger with Liverpool.
That, ultimately, will be Benitez's unfortunate legacy when future generations look back at this period and Liverpool's involvement in the Europa League will hardly be mentioned.
All managers aspire to a comfortable situation in which two players of relatively equal merit are fighting to start but when Rafa Benitez checked his squad on to the bus for the long haul to Madrid the reality was somewhat different.
A motley collection of young, old and bewildered players which cost about £230m to assemble now carry the fate of Liverpool at their feet.
The club has a big 'For Sale' sticker attached and everyone knows that the only way Liverpool can remain a force in Premier League and European football is via massive investment -- calculated at £1bn by some.
There was a time when a number like that was virtually incomprehensible but in our world, whoever buys Liverpool and spends that sort of money on the project is getting a bargain. Here in Ireland, we're spending many, many billions on nothing at all and we have a bitter, bitter understanding of the maths.
Everything about Liverpool at the moment is as shaky and hollow as an Irish bank. They have much in common, both burdened by unmanageable debt but still paying out huge salaries.
But the banks have us to bail them out. Benitez only has the players around him and for six months, the big earners haven't been near good enough.
Gerrard glares at the world through hooded eyebrows while Torres, the club's last great hope, took the long road to Spain for an operation which gives him a chance of playing some significant role in the World Cup for his country but leaves his club without a recognised striker.
Benitez looked sharp and efficient when he first arrived from Valencia six years ago and quickly established a reputation as a man who could say nothing at all with great courtesy and good humour.
But these days he often looks as if he could do with a shave and he says far too much badly. In fact, his demeanour became shifty once he began to cultivate face hair and opened up with both barrels on Alex Ferguson -- never a good plan unless you have substance to match the rhetoric.
It was a moment of arrogance on Benitez's part which he has never really recovered from. Up until that point in December 2009, Benitez was universally admired as an honourable man and a good manager working in difficult circumstances although there were conscientious objectors like Ronnie Whelan who believed that there was already too much evidence of bad judgement for comfort.
But from the moment he chose to redesign his image and emerged wild-eyed, red-faced and ready to trade verbal blows on an equal footing with Fergie, the tide turned among neutrals.
It turned, too, in the Premier League and Liverpool have been in effective decline ever since. The peak reached just before Christmas 2008 was as good as it's going to be for a long time.
Neutral football lovers understood the scale of Liverpool's problems long before the Kop did but Benitez's failings became wrapped up in supporters' dislike of Hicks and Gillett.
Benitez wrapped the popular vote around him and went into a boardroom battle with Rick Parry which he ultimately won.
It has proven to be a very empty victory indeed. With the only big lump of cash spent since Parry left, Benitez chose to invest heavily in Alberto Aquilani who, according to his manager, is too soft for English football.
Even Parry might have chosen better than that.
After a series of questionable and sometimes downright irrational transfer deals in and out of Anfield, Benitez flunked his first solo test. Nobody else to blame for Aquilani but the manager.
Thursday night’s Europa League assignment is nothing more than a distraction from the most important work being done by Liverpool at the moment. The urgent search for a buyer is all-important.
But Benitez will hope that success in a competition which was on nobody's list of targets when Liverpool kicked off the season back in August full of optimism and hunger, will serve him on two fronts.
If there is any truth in tales of a Chinese zillionaire ready to invest and there's a big bankroll at Anfield next season, Benitez would clearly fancy a go even if that would be a disaster for the club.
An unlikely fourth place and Champions League football would be ideal, but the Europa League sitting in the Anfield trophy room would at least give him chips to play with.
Speculation that there has already been communication between potential new owners and Benitez suggest he's in the game at least.
In fact, Benitez is now in a pretty good position all told. He will bank a fortune if Liverpool cancel his contract and by the looks of things, he has a decent fallback position at Juventus. Another trinket always helps in salary negotiations. And he could walk into another well paid job leaving an awful mess behind him.
Even with a big budget, a top quality new manager will struggle to build a squad capable of squaring up to Manchester United and Chelsea at Anfield.
Manchester City is now the benchmark for Liverpool and that can't be easy to admit for fans reared on Shankly, Paisley, Fagan and Dalglish or even the Istanbul generation.
Manchester United make new memories every season and for their fans, success never grows old, even if Alex Ferguson does and moves ever closer to the day when he will leave Old Trafford bereft and searching for some way to plug an even bigger hole than the one Matt Busby left when he finally retired.
It took 26 years for Manchester United to climb back to the top of the English game and into a dominant position. While they struggled, Liverpool etched new standards of brilliance on every trophy plate available.
Two decades have passed since Kenny Dalglish stepped down, over-burdened by the stress of life at Anfield and still grieving for those lost at Heysel and Hillsborough. And in that period, Ferguson has rewritten the history books and balanced the ledger with Liverpool.
That, ultimately, will be Benitez's unfortunate legacy when future generations look back at this period and Liverpool's involvement in the Europa League will hardly be mentioned.
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