Liverpool's Summer Transfers: Rafa Benitez Not Learning His Lesson?

In the last 24 hours, Rafa Benitez has taken Liverpool's summer spending to around the £32 million mark with the capture of forward Robbie Keane from Tottenham.

Yet, during another summer of squad turnover at Anfield, is Benitez harming the chances of his team winning the Premier League?

In the past three seasons, Liverpool's challenge for the title has been over before it has really begun, thanks to inconsistent performances between August and November. It is no coincidence that it is these three months that new players spend bedding into a new team, new surroundings, new systems, and often more and higher expectations from fans and the media.

It is often the case that Liverpool are at least equal to, and often out perform, Chelsea and Manchester United from November onwards. But that is overshadowed by the fact that they are often 12-15 points off the pace by that time.

For a man as meticulous and tactically aware of, as he puts it, "the small details," Benitez must realise the risk he takes every summer by buying in five or six new first team squad players.

Indeed, it is perhaps noticeable that since he had money available from last season onwards, he has tried to buy three or four "big money" players as opposed to six or seven "squad" players. Torres, Babel, Kuyt, Alonso, Mascherano, and now Keane are his biggest investments, and are virtually first team regulars.

This would seem to indicate that he knows what he wants, but he sometimes has to compensate for not having the complete package. The summer of 2005 and the protracted attempt to sign Simao from Benfica is a fine example.

At the 11th hour, Benfica pulled the plug on a deal, and since then, Rafa has had to make do with stop-gap replacements such as Gonzales and Pennant, neither of whom were or are shining beacons of success.

Manchester United won the title back from Chelsea after a summer where they signed only two major first team players. Their form and consistency from the previous season's climax was able to continue on into the new campaign with little disruption. One can't help but feel that this is the way to go.

This season will come too soon for Liverpool. But with Benitez's policy of investing in players under the age of 18 (he has brought close to 25 youth team players into the club in his time as manager), Liverpool fans will hope that the summer merry-go-round will soon be a thing of the past, as players who are developed in the Liverpool way can make the jump from reserves to first team.

Leaving Rafa in the enviable position of having his summer budget to invest in one or two world class players, safe in the knowledge he can afford them, and he won't have to settle for "squad" standard replacements.

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