Benitez looks for quality

ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE: RAFAEL BENITEZ has signalled a departure from his traditional transfer policy at Anfield by saying he only needs to fine-tune his squad this summer to enhance the club's prospects of winning the Premier League title.

The Liverpool manager, whose side could return to the league summit with victory at West Ham United this evening, has spent heavily on wholesale changes to his squad during his five close seasons at the club.

Having now delivered the first genuine title challenge of his reign, Benitez, who will look to conclude a swift deal for Gareth Barry at the end of this season and may move again for David Silva should Valencia lower their price, believes quality, not quantity, is required in the summer.

"The spine of the team is there and that's often the most important thing," he said. "We can improve a little bit in certain areas, but overall we don't need to change a lot. When we first came here, we had to improve a lot and we often didn't have the money or the options to bring all the players we wanted. Now, we can say, 'Come to Liverpool as you will win trophies in the future', and I think players will come.

"Clearly we need to bring in some quality players to take us a step forward. If we can keep the consistency of this year, then one or two players could make a massive difference. If we can keep (Steven) Gerrard and (Fernando) Torres fit for most of the season, that will make a difference also."

Both those players are available to face West Ham, the Spaniard having missed last Sunday's stroll against Newcastle with a hamstring problem, although Xabi Alonso is out as a consequence of Joey Barton's dangerous challenge at Anfield.

Liverpool's transfer business will also differ this summer as a result of Benitez' new five-year contract, which gives the manager greater influence over targets. But the manager played down the impact of the change.

"It's clear I have the same responsibility now that other managers have in the transfer market. I don't have more, I have the same," said Benitez.

Arsene Wenger needs no reassurance about his policy in the transfer market, but if any member of the Arsenal support should do so, the manager has suggested that he or she look long and hard at tomorrow's Premier League visitors to Emirates Stadium.

"Chelsea have spent magic money and they have still not won the European Cup," he said. "It is not all down to spending the money. It is down to sticking to a policy and I believe that the next year will tell us more about the efficiency of the policy."

Wenger is not for turning. Well, not completely. He conceded he had identified areas in which he wanted to strengthen and he would "try, of course, to bring in one or two players". Would they be experienced players? "If we buy players, it will certainly not be players who lack experience," the Frenchman said.

Fine-tuning apart, Wenger remains convinced his youthful project can prosper. The doubters can run and jump. Wenger will look to next season with his glass half-full and he is hopeful that players such as Johan Djourou, Abou Diaby, Samir Nasri, Nicklas Bendtner and Theo Walcott, who yesterday signed a new contract that would keep him at the club until 2013, can improve sufficiently to close what appears to be a yawning gap to Manchester United.

"We can go further because we have a young team," said Wenger. "It's not a team that is over the hill. It is a team that is at the start of the hill. You have to accept as well what we have done. We are in the last four in Europe and we have not lost a (Premier League) game since November. We have lost in the Champions League semi-final to a team that is better than us, it's nothing to be ashamed of. United are the world and European champions."

The 4-1 defeat to United over two legs has left everyone at Arsenal "very down and very frustrated", in Wenger's words. Yet he continues to wonder what might have been if the defenders William Gallas and Gael Clichy had not been injured, and if his team had not conceded such a soft opening goal after seven minutes of the second leg, when Kieran Gibbs's slip presented the opportunity for Park Ji-sung.

"We lost Gallas and Clichy at an important period," he said. "If Vidic and Ferdinand went out together, Man United, despite all the players they have, would not be the same."

Wenger digressed into an analysis of both legs which was sure to have United supporters scratching their heads. "If you analyse the two games away from the goals . . . and, of course, you can say you are completely stupid (to do that), but if you analyse the games, you would be surprised," he said.

"United are efficient where it matters, defensively and offensively. They are a fantastic counter-attacking team. They have players capable to make the difference on the breaks, more than a possession team. The final (against Barcelona) will be interesting because it will be a counter-attacking team against a possession team."

Wenger went on to claim that Nicklas Bendtner, who was photographed leaving a nightclub with his trousers around his ankles in the small hours of Wednesday morning after the United defeat, had been the victim of a "set-up".

"He was not drunk and he did not pull his trousers down, somebody did it for him," said Wenger, who has fined Bendtner for being out so late after such a shattering loss. "Somebody waiting (behind him) for the camera has pulled his pants down."

Guardian Service