Why Liverpool won't be Champions, by a Liverpool Fan.

Being Liverpool manager is a tough job, the expectations of the fans are massive and the club needs to be reinstalled at the very top of the domestic game.

After showing early promise with a Champions League win in Istanbul, Rafael Benitez told us it was still going to take time to mount a serious challenge.

It's easy as a fan to get swept along with hype and not really look too deep into the harsh facts, that Liverpool simply haven't been good enough as a squad to compete with Manchester United and Chelsea.

So, as we look forward to season 2008/09, could this be our year?

After last season's failings in the league, I commented to those that would listen that there were certain members of the squad that were simply not good enough to help us win the league.

I fully believed that whilst Riise, Kewell, Crouch and Voronin were in the squad and getting games, then we wouldn't be any threat to the top two. I'm being a little harsh on Crouch as he did well for us, but he's not in the top band of strikers that you need to be title contenders.

With the above in mind I was delighted to see that Rafa let go some of the players I'd highlighted. One thing Rafa likes to mention when selling players is that he has never let a player go, that has gone on to bigger and better things, which is certainly true and goes a long way to show that the squad will be stronger for there absence.

Scott Carson has signed a deal with Albion after managing to cut his protracted transfer fee in half in the space of 12 months with some poor displays. So the replacements have started coming to the club, albeit rather slowly!

Andrea Dossena has come in as a straight replacement for Riise, he's been impressive in Serie A and on the face of it seems a good signing. His preseason debut was fairly unremarkable; it's still too early to pass judgment though. He certainly must be an improvement over Riise.

Another new full back, Phillip Degen has signed on a free transfer. I don't envisage too many appearances this season in all honesty unless Finnan is sold as makeweight for the ongoing Gareth Barry transfer.

The deal for Robbie Keane is still very quiet; I expect it to go through in the near future after Spurs admitted the player wanted to leave for Liverpool. I can only summise that the fee is the stumbling block, Deja Vu anyone?

This signing in particular has been split amongst Reds fans. I look upon it with great optimism although Rafa does have a habit of wanting to buy players who perform well against us (Yossi Benayoun in the 'Gerrard' Cup Final was immense).

Keane however is a very bright footballer who can bring other players into the game and create chances from nothing, he can also score some spectacular goals and works extremely hard for the team.

I can only imagine his enthusiasm to play for a massive club like ours will be a huge plus for the coming season, I'd expect him to drop straight into the deep striker role that Gerrard played for the tail end of last season with Gerrard himself dropping deeper into a Midfield trio alongside Barry with Mascherano protecting the back four.

This "new look" team should help us pick up points where we really shouldn't be dropping them, against teams like Wigan and Tottenham at home which will certainly move us closer to the top.

If those signings do happen then we are definitely stronger than last season, but is it enough to make us Premiership Champions for the very first time? In short, no.

The lack of transfer funds makes it impossible to challenge United and Chelsea, whose squads are still superior to ours. Our policy of having to sell players in order to buy puts us way behind those teams in terms of transfer muscle.

When we are scraping the funds to buy Keane and Barry, Chelsea are preparing a world record bid for Robinho after already splashing £16m on Bosingwa and £8m on a 30-year-old Deco.

United won't need to spend much this season, maybe just £30m or so on Berbatov, which is of course small change to them! They did their major work last season when they sunk £60m into the Nani, Anderson and Hargreaves signings.

This means our realistic expectations should be a challenge for the title, at least being in the hunt come March and April but ultimately finishing below the top two. I haven't mentioned Arsenal much as I feel they will struggle due to the widespread departures of their top players recently, they may make it into fourth but it will be tough.

Another successful Champions League campaign could be on the cards, qualifying should be a formality and I'd hope to at least make the Semi's again, hopefully avoiding other English teams along the way.

It's hard to admit that we won't win the Premier League but until we can compete for the very top players we will struggle.

If money were no object I'm sure Benitez would have put David Villa and David Silva at the top of his wish list, the Barry transfer would have been a done deal long ago and a top quality right back would be earmarked early on.

The reality is that Rafa has the toughest job in the Premier League, trying to win a Premier League title on a comparative shoestring budget.