The timescale was short and the warning stark, albeit administered by a man who looks like an avuncular provincial bank manager. 'I want things done now because if you delay and miss out, you end up with your second or third option. That is no way to build a team that can challenge for the Premiership title.'
Rafael Benitez was speaking on May 24, the day after Filippo Inzaghi had denied him a second Champions League in three seasons which would, the Spaniard implied, have papered over the cracks in Liverpool's recruitment policy. The implication was clear: second choice meant second best.
That was May, this is July. There was an emphasis on the word 'now' but, more than five weeks later, the radical change Benitez envisaged is only just beginning. When he spoke, the Ukrainian Andrei Voronin and the South Americans Lucas Leivo and Sebastien Leto had already agreed to join.
Since then, the four confirmed arrivals at Anfield are ingénues, with young Hungarians Kristian Nemeth and Andras Simon followed last week by two teenagers, Mikel San Jose and Nikolay Mihaylov. The Athletic Bilbao defender and the Bulgarian goalkeeper should bolster a youth team whose inadequacies had long become apparent to Benitez, but it is fair to assume they were not who he had in mind when he made his barely veiled demands in Athens.
The target, as Tom Hicks and George Gillett are surely aware, was chief executive Rick Parry. If questions about his judgment are believed to have been raised by Liverpool's new owners after Parry commissioned a new Anfield with a lesser capacity than the club's fervent fanbase can support, an inquisition could yet await.
Nor was the reference to second, or third-choice signings idle talk. It is certainly a fair description of Craig Bellamy and Jermaine Pennant, neither a resounding success, and there are others to whom it may apply. The list of top-rank targets to elude Benitez, meanwhile, is lengthy and topped by David Villa, Daniel Alves, Nemanja Vidic and Simao Sabrosa. Given the longstanding requirement for one of the world's elite to recruit in both attack and on the flank, the Spanish striker and the Portuguese winger are particularly missed. After Athens, there was no pretence from Benitez that Bellamy and Pennant represented blue-chip alternatives.
Indeed, Liverpool's recent undistinguished record of procuring their targets, despite the undeniable prestige the club possesses, is reminiscent of Manchester United's in the era when Peter Kenyon was chief executive.
Ronaldinho was the most prominent player wanted by Sir Alex Ferguson to escape his clutches in a transfer saga that turned farcical. Where Kenyon did succeed, preparing him perfectly for life at Chelsea, was when equipped with huge fees; between them Ruud van Nistelrooy, Juan Sebastian Veron and Rio Ferdinand cost around £80 million.
So the parallels continue. Parry has negotiated a fee with Atletico Madrid for Fernando Torres. As the forward's prohibitive release clause is £27 million, around the fee Liverpool will pay, it hardly represents a triumph of negotiation. Nonetheless, even though David Villa and Samuel Eto'o were surely the preferred choices, Torres at least merited a place on the shortlist. He is not, it is apparent, the cut-price option.
Indeed, to ease the deal through, Liverpool appear to have undervalued Luis Garcia when providing him in part-exchange. Though his inconsistency can be infuriating, the Spaniard's penchant for the big occasion, coupled with his outstanding record in Europe, should surely value him at more than £4 million, a 50 percent reduction in his cost three years ago at a time when inflation is distorting other prices.
Even if Torres is secured, Parry's summer is far from over. As Boudewijn Zenden's predictably ineffectual display in Athens demonstrated, a winger is a priority. Benitez's warning is as relevant there as in attack; a mix-and-match policy of an assortment of inferior options - Zenden, Pennant, Mark Gonzalez and Harry Kewell - has failed when the superior choices on the flanks remain, essentially, a central midfielder (Steven Gerrard) and a left-back (John Arne Riise). Florent Malouda, the Player of the Year in France, appeared the favoured improvement on the left, but Benitez may now have a sense of déjà vu: he remains at Lyon while Chelsea's interest appears to be increasing.
Then there is the other half of Liverpool's transfer dealings. If Parry cannot be faulted for the loss made on Fernando Morientes after his failure in England, Benitez's fighting fund could benefit from additional revenue generated by sales. Yet Bellamy, like Gonzalez, remains at Anfield. The only exits have been those of Robbie Fowler and Jerzy Dudek, whose contracts have expired. More culpably, Djibril Cisse remains a Liverpool player, long after Benitez tired of him. If there was misfortune in the timing that ruled him out of the World Cup when Cisse was on the brink of a move to Marseille, it is still surprising that Parry remains unable to offload a French international striker.
So there is the issue of finding new homes and, more pertinently, extra millions for Benitez from the unwanted. Almost six weeks into the summer break and into July, the Liverpool manager could be forgiven for wondering, as four Mancunians did 20 years ago, how soon is now; there may yet be a rushed feel to Liverpool's rebuilding, something he was adamant they needed to avoid.
And after experiencing the frustrations of dealing with a board who failed to provide his preferred players at Valencia, he may be finding Anfield rather too familiar. But if Benitez's influence extends under Gillett and Hicks and Liverpool becomes truly 'his club', it is not impossible that, unless Torres is followed by signings of a similar calibre, come the next phase of the Rafalution, Rick Parry will be the first against the wall.
Rafael Benitez was speaking on May 24, the day after Filippo Inzaghi had denied him a second Champions League in three seasons which would, the Spaniard implied, have papered over the cracks in Liverpool's recruitment policy. The implication was clear: second choice meant second best.
That was May, this is July. There was an emphasis on the word 'now' but, more than five weeks later, the radical change Benitez envisaged is only just beginning. When he spoke, the Ukrainian Andrei Voronin and the South Americans Lucas Leivo and Sebastien Leto had already agreed to join.
Since then, the four confirmed arrivals at Anfield are ingénues, with young Hungarians Kristian Nemeth and Andras Simon followed last week by two teenagers, Mikel San Jose and Nikolay Mihaylov. The Athletic Bilbao defender and the Bulgarian goalkeeper should bolster a youth team whose inadequacies had long become apparent to Benitez, but it is fair to assume they were not who he had in mind when he made his barely veiled demands in Athens.
The target, as Tom Hicks and George Gillett are surely aware, was chief executive Rick Parry. If questions about his judgment are believed to have been raised by Liverpool's new owners after Parry commissioned a new Anfield with a lesser capacity than the club's fervent fanbase can support, an inquisition could yet await.
Nor was the reference to second, or third-choice signings idle talk. It is certainly a fair description of Craig Bellamy and Jermaine Pennant, neither a resounding success, and there are others to whom it may apply. The list of top-rank targets to elude Benitez, meanwhile, is lengthy and topped by David Villa, Daniel Alves, Nemanja Vidic and Simao Sabrosa. Given the longstanding requirement for one of the world's elite to recruit in both attack and on the flank, the Spanish striker and the Portuguese winger are particularly missed. After Athens, there was no pretence from Benitez that Bellamy and Pennant represented blue-chip alternatives.
Indeed, Liverpool's recent undistinguished record of procuring their targets, despite the undeniable prestige the club possesses, is reminiscent of Manchester United's in the era when Peter Kenyon was chief executive.
Ronaldinho was the most prominent player wanted by Sir Alex Ferguson to escape his clutches in a transfer saga that turned farcical. Where Kenyon did succeed, preparing him perfectly for life at Chelsea, was when equipped with huge fees; between them Ruud van Nistelrooy, Juan Sebastian Veron and Rio Ferdinand cost around £80 million.
So the parallels continue. Parry has negotiated a fee with Atletico Madrid for Fernando Torres. As the forward's prohibitive release clause is £27 million, around the fee Liverpool will pay, it hardly represents a triumph of negotiation. Nonetheless, even though David Villa and Samuel Eto'o were surely the preferred choices, Torres at least merited a place on the shortlist. He is not, it is apparent, the cut-price option.
Indeed, to ease the deal through, Liverpool appear to have undervalued Luis Garcia when providing him in part-exchange. Though his inconsistency can be infuriating, the Spaniard's penchant for the big occasion, coupled with his outstanding record in Europe, should surely value him at more than £4 million, a 50 percent reduction in his cost three years ago at a time when inflation is distorting other prices.
Even if Torres is secured, Parry's summer is far from over. As Boudewijn Zenden's predictably ineffectual display in Athens demonstrated, a winger is a priority. Benitez's warning is as relevant there as in attack; a mix-and-match policy of an assortment of inferior options - Zenden, Pennant, Mark Gonzalez and Harry Kewell - has failed when the superior choices on the flanks remain, essentially, a central midfielder (Steven Gerrard) and a left-back (John Arne Riise). Florent Malouda, the Player of the Year in France, appeared the favoured improvement on the left, but Benitez may now have a sense of déjà vu: he remains at Lyon while Chelsea's interest appears to be increasing.
Then there is the other half of Liverpool's transfer dealings. If Parry cannot be faulted for the loss made on Fernando Morientes after his failure in England, Benitez's fighting fund could benefit from additional revenue generated by sales. Yet Bellamy, like Gonzalez, remains at Anfield. The only exits have been those of Robbie Fowler and Jerzy Dudek, whose contracts have expired. More culpably, Djibril Cisse remains a Liverpool player, long after Benitez tired of him. If there was misfortune in the timing that ruled him out of the World Cup when Cisse was on the brink of a move to Marseille, it is still surprising that Parry remains unable to offload a French international striker.
So there is the issue of finding new homes and, more pertinently, extra millions for Benitez from the unwanted. Almost six weeks into the summer break and into July, the Liverpool manager could be forgiven for wondering, as four Mancunians did 20 years ago, how soon is now; there may yet be a rushed feel to Liverpool's rebuilding, something he was adamant they needed to avoid.
And after experiencing the frustrations of dealing with a board who failed to provide his preferred players at Valencia, he may be finding Anfield rather too familiar. But if Benitez's influence extends under Gillett and Hicks and Liverpool becomes truly 'his club', it is not impossible that, unless Torres is followed by signings of a similar calibre, come the next phase of the Rafalution, Rick Parry will be the first against the wall.
RAFA 
Comment