Manager Rafa Benitez beleives Liverpool simply cannot compete with Chelsea and Manchester United financially.

Benitez who is locked in negotiations over a new contract with the Merseyside outfit told the Mirror: "Chelsea will have spent £500 million over the last five years.

"We've made a team that can compete with them but economically we're inferiors and can't afford the players they can. I have enough data to bore you with but if you look at United it wasn't just spending £31m on Dimitar Berbatov - they can spend whatever it takes for what they need every year.

"Last year it was £17m on Owen Hargreaves, £18m on Nani and £20m on Anderson. In my five years I've paid less in transfer fees than I've received, even though I bought Fernando Torres and Robbie Keane."

The Spaniard then went on to talk about his team's silverware hopes.

He said: "Now we're out of the FA Cup it's necessary to look for the positives and those are that we will play fewer games and be able to concentrate more on the Premier League and the Champions League," he said.

"The title in England is very competitive, more so than in Spain, because every opponent you face will make it hard for you.

"Our biggest problem is in the great expectations of the success that surrounds us. All we ever hear from the fans is 'The League the League, it's 19 years since we had it'.

Since I've been at the club we've won four trophies.
"I feel we're where we need to be but the problem for us now is the anxiety around us - we must handle it and that's not easy."

And in typical Benitez fashion, he finished off by enforcing his earlier rant this year about Sir Alex Ferguson.

"Ferguson controls everything in this country," he added.
"These are the facts as everyone knows. When he decided to talk about Liverpool I knew I had to respond to him."