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.
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