It’s January, and that means it’s transfer window time. If you’re a Liverpool fan like me, this is usually a time of sheer frustration and this season is certainly no exception. The club has followed up last season’s excellent showing in the league, with a display of sheer on-pitch ineptitude that one might expect from a lower league team with part time staff, but certainly not from the likes of the overpaid superstars that call Anfield home.

As a club, Liverpool has shown a degree of patience with its managers that is all but non-existent in the English Premier League, and this is a trait that does the club, its staff and its fans much credit. However, enough is enough. I for one am fed up with seeing Rafa spend great flipping wodges of cash on players that he tells us are amazing, and yet completely fail to deliver the goods. I suspect this is largely down to the fact that Mr Benitez seems adamant that the best way to develop his players and team is via a squad rotation system that ensures they don’t get a regular game or any kind of opportunity to settle into anything approaching a rhythm. Often, these players show flashes of brilliance, but no kind of consistency, and then thanks to the ludicrous financial situation, are shown the door and sold on for less than the club paid for them a year previously.

So, having got rid of arguably England’s finest striker in Peter Crouch, and shooing off other goal scorers with proven track records (Robbie Keane and Craig Bellamy), we are left with one striker. Probably the finest striker in the world, but he is just one man. Inexplicably, we passed (again) the opportunity to have Michael Owen back, so now we are in a position where we must sell players in order to have enough money to buy someone new. The squad needs strengthening throughout, and we maybe could have done this had Rafa not gassed over £20million on Aquilani, who has so far managed just 5 outings for the club.

Then, I saw in the rumour mill talk of us getting none other than Ruud van Nistelrooy from Real Madrid. That would have been brilliant! Some would say that at 33 he’s past it, but I’ll have you know the Ruud Boy has stuck in 46 goals in 68 appearances for Real Madrid. It’s a complete no-brainer: Ruud wants first team football for the World Cup, and he won’t get it at Real; we need a cheap striker who knows the Premiership and can hit the ground running. But, no, it doesn’t look like it will happen. Instead, by all accounts, we now have Maxi Rodriguez on his way over who has a rather less impressive record of 32 goals in 121 appearances for Atletico Madrid, and no Premiership experience. He’s 29, played most of his career in Spain, and in all probability won’t adapt to the Premiership even in the unlikely event that Rafa actually gives him a regular run out.

What’s even more sad is that unless we get a big offer for a player, our January signings will be just Maxi and possibly one other loan signing (and that won’t be Ruud).

I really hope I’m proven wrong, but I doubt it. If Liverpool don’t muster a top 4 finish this season, then Rafa must go. If we don’t win the league next year, then Rafa must go. He’s had his chance and spent vast amounts of money bringing in player after player, and with a few exceptions, most of them haven’t worked. How much more time and money do we give this guy?

I say give the job to Ian Rush.

And for those interested, here are a few of Rafa’s Kop Flops:

Josemi - £2m - 16 starts in 18 months
Antonio Nunez - part of the Michael Owen deal, and easy to see why Real wanted rid of him
Fernando Morientes - £6.3m - formerly brilliant, but a short spell playing for Rafa soon cocked that up
Jan Kromkamp - lasted half a season before scarpering back to the Netherlands
Mark Gonzalez - £4.5m - spent a year on loan just to get a work permit and was gone after one season
Craig Bellamy - £6m - actually scored better than 1 in 3, but he also fell by the wayside
Ryan Babel - £11.5m - showed some signs of promise, and probably just needs regular football, but by all accounts he will be shown the door this month
Jermaine Pennant - £6.7m - not good enough for Arsenal, and not good enough for us, despite some flashes of brilliance
Robbie Keane - £20.3 - came to play for Rafa and wrecked his career, didn’t get nearly enough action to stand a chance of surviving longer than the 6 months he did, before being sold for a massive loss
Gabriel Paletta - £2m - useless defender that made only 3 appearances
Andrea Dossena - £7m - now our 3rd choice left back, great value, not

There are more, but I’m just too depressed to carry on…