No signings; No title

As our anthem states, I shall walk on with hope in my heart because following the closure of the transfer window, hope of a miraculous performance by a squad severely lacking strength in depth is the only alternative to the more practical acceptance that Liverpool cannot realistically win the League title this season.

We knew we weren’t going to make anymore signings before midnight on Tuesday but I still felt utterly deflated when it came to pass.

Increasingly, I believe we over-achieved last season when the squads of Chelsea and Man Ure were not only more expensively assembled but, on paper, were stronger in depth than ours and yet we finished above Chelsea and were a few dodgy refereeing decisions away from finishing above the Mancs.

However, I do believe that had we used this summer to strengthen, with Chelsea failing to strengthen their squad and Man Ure weakening theirs, we could have equalled if not exceeded last season’s performance and, in doing so, finally ended 20 years of hurt. Predictably, our worthless American owners failed to stump up the cash and, in doing so, derailed our best opportunity since 2002-03 before pre-season resumed.

Yes there has been transfer activity but the three first team players brought in (Johnson, Aquilani and Krygiakos) were signed as direct replacements for the outgoing Arbeloa, Alonso and Hyypia. Our problems last season were not with those players who have now departed but with the quality and contributions of the fringe players.

Johnson is undoubtedly an improvement on Arbeloa but we have not addressed the problem we had last season that when our first choice right-back is unavailable, we are reliant on a youth player, a useless Swiss or a player who would otherwise be utilised elsewhere in the first XI to fill in. That equates to a weakening of the first team.

We wait to discover whether Aquilani can fill the massive void created by Alonso’s departure but like last season, when our preferred play-maker is absent we are still limited to choosing between Lucas, a youth player or dropping Gerrard back from the forward role in which he excels and is our most likely source of goals.

We still have Ryan Babel and Albert Riera “competing” for the left-midfield berth with neither looking remotely convincing. We still have only Nabil El Zahr to replace Dirk Kuyt on the right unless Yossi Benayoun is used to fill in which is ineffective because for all the qualities Yossi brings to the team, width is not one.

Seeing Michael Turner move to Sunderland was extremely depressing. It isn’t the player so much as the principle. The fact is we were priced out of signing a player from Hull City that Sunderland were able to afford and, instead ended up signing a bargain basement washed up centre-half from Greece.

From top to bottom (mainly at the top) our club showed a total lack of ambition and it isn’t a recent phenomenon. In fact, since we last broke the British transfer record to sign Stan Collymore in 1995, we have been signing players who might come good rather than paying the going rate to land the best players around.

We all scoffed at Man City’s failed attempts to sign Gianluigi Buffon, Samuel Eto’o, Kaka and John Terry but with hindsight, as laudably audacious as those moves were, at least City had the mentality to go for the best. By comparison, we sold one of our best players to another club who wanted to sign the best around and spent two thirds of the fee received on a player who few people outside of Italy had ever heard of. Reputations and high fees do not guarantee players will be successful (as Veron and Shevchenko proved) but the chances are that if you can keep signing the best, the majority will come good. Maybe Ronaldo, Alonso, Kaka and Benzema won’t all prove successful signings for Real Madrid but I expect most of them will.

Why wouldn’t a player like Alonso want to join a team where players of the calibre of Ruud van Nistelrooy and Wesley Sneijder are being edged out of the first team squad rather than stay somewhere where your place is only under threat from Lucas, Plessis and Spearing at a push and where Nabil El Zahr and Andrily Voronin are thrown off the bench to rescue games?

With hindsight, City’s pursuit of those players was no more ludicrous as would have been the suggestion in 2004 that Chelsea would sign Hernan Crespo, Andrily Shevchenko, Michael Ballack, Deco and Ashley Cole as well as Damien Duff, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Scott Parker, Wayne Bridge, Glen Johnson, Joe Cole, Nicolas Anelka, Arjen Robben, Didier Drogba, Petr Cech, etc. within 4 years. Before Abramovich turned up, Chelsea could only attract the bigger names in world football at the end of their careers. Had Chelsea been linked with Buffon, Eto’o and Kaka this summer, no one would have thought it laudable. That might also be the case with City in 3 or 4 years and by that time, who knows where we might be.

It might not be this season but sooner or later, it will be us or Arsenal for that fourth Champions League spot and if their signing of Arshavin is anything to go by, they think bigger than we do.

Somebody save us.