It looks like Rafa Benitez will again show his ruthlessness this summer with further departures from Anfield. Defeat in the Champions League Final in Athens was followed by the news that Mark Gonzalez will be sold after just one season at the club, and that there will be others following him.

Since being appointed in the summer of 2004, Benitez has sold 36 players as he has attempted to reshape the squad and shed the deadwood left behind after Gerard Houllier’s tenure. The likes of Anthony La Tallec, Florent Sinama Pongolle, Djimi Traore, Salif Diao, El Hadji Diouf and Benoit Cheyrou have all departed, but so have some of Benitez’s own signings.

Rafa has signed 39 players (discounting youth signings this number is closer to 30). Interestingly though, seven of the Spaniard’s signings have already left the club within his three years - Jose Miguel Josemi, Victor Nunez, Fernando Morientes, Jan Kromkamp, Antonio Barragan, Mauricio Pellegrino and now Robbie Fowler). And more of Benitez’s own signings are set to leave this summer - Gonzalez for sure, Bolo Zenden most probably, Scott Carson, Craig Bellamy and quite possibly Gabriel Paletta.

It would be fair to say that the staff turn-over at Anfield in recent years has been pretty similar to that of a local McDonald’s restuarant. There are two views for this, one being the question mark over why so many players have been signed in the first place yet failed to deliver, and the other being that players judged below par are quickly moved on.

The likes of Zenden, Pellegrino and Fowler were free signings, brought in to provide experience and to beef up a squad that was thin on quality three years ago. I would say they were neither successful nor unsuccessful signings.

Josemi, Nunez, Barragan nor Kromkamp arrived with much expectation and all failed to impress. Yes, they were disappointing signings and rather Houllier-esque type players, but they were brought in, much like Fowler and Co, to provide squad cover and maybe more in the hope they would progress into worthy purchases. Nunez and Kromkamp were signed in part exchanges (Nunez somewhat forcibly in the whole Michael Owen to Madrid fiasco) and Barragan and Josemi cost less than £2.5m between them. Hardly anything to worry about.

But there have been some not to-so-great buys. One of the most disappointing was Morientes, the only player to cost a significant sum  at £6.3m (sold for £3m). In the case of Morientes, it was due more to a player simply being unable to adapt to the English game and therefore he was moved on and replaced by Dirk Kuyt, a player more suited to the Premiership.

As we look at those expected to be allowed to leave this summer, though, you could question the signings in particular of Bellamy and Gonzalez.

Bellamy was seen as a coup at £6m and signed to inject pace and diversity to the attack, but he has failed to fit into the Benitez regime, despite impressing in the Nou Camp and offering a new aspect to our attack when used. Whether it is a case of off-field rather than on-field attitude affecting his seemingly imminent departure isn’t clear. Benitez’s focus on strategy and tactics may not be suited to the Welshman's style.

The biggest disappointment has to be Gonzalez, especially after the great lengths taken to secure a work permit and after Benitez hailed him as the best player in Chile. He said: “Gonzalez is a player who will shine in the Premiership but very soon he could be one of the most exciting players in England. Liverpool supporters love to see players who can lift them out of their seats and Gonzalez is exactly that sort of player.” Let’s just say Gonzalez is the only Rafa signing who can definitely be marked down as a 'miss.'

However, it is heartening to see this turnover of players of the calibre we are seeing leave the club so quickly. Benitez has spent little on these players, quickly discovered they won’t make the grade, and just as quickly dispatched them.

It is a stark contrast to Houllier’s tenure which saw millions upon millions lavishly splashed upon the likes of Diouf, Cheyrou, Diao, Pongolle, Le Tallec and Djibril Cisse - being put on long-term contracts and never being shipped out as Houllier stubbornly stuck by his claims that they were his "new Zidanes."

Benitez knows the type of player he needs but, just as importantly, knows the players he doesn’t need and isn’t afraid to admit a misjudgment of a player by keeping him when he is no longer needed. I just hope the trend doesn’t continue for too long - and that it doesn’t spread on to more costly signings failing to make the grade. I trust it won’t, and that the end of this summer will signal the start of a more settled and balanced squad.

One thing is for sure, though. Cisse will no longer be the club’s record signing when the new Premiership season kicks off on August 10.