Good news or bad news? Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez has stated that Peter Crouch has a future at Anfield while it seems that Craig Bellamy is being seen as surplus to requirements following a below-average season.

With nine goals from 33 starts in his first season at the club, Bellamy has hardly set Merseyside alight. The volatile Welshman also has a tendency to rub people up the wrong way. John Arne Riise knows more than most about Bellamy’s lunatic behaviour, and this has led to the former Blackburn and Newcastle striker being set adrift from the good ship Liverpool.

Whilst Crouch also failed to impress in his first months in a Reds shirt, he has grown into a cult hero with a fair-to-decent strike rate. He certainly seems more likely to gel with Dirk Kuyt, who himself has yet to shine to his fullest in English football. This has sparked rumours of various European strikers who may or may not be winging their way to the north-west.

Samuel Eto’o and Fernando Torres are the most prominent names being linked with leading Rafa’s new revolution, fuelled by the war chest being offered by new owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks. In all honesty, I can not see either of these two strikers arriving at Anfield; this isn’t to say that a move is beneath them but I don’t see either Eto'o or Torres leaving their current clubs.

Eto’o, even with his problems with team-mates and the racist elements of Spanish crowds, will find it hard to leave a massively successful set-up like Barcelona. Torres seems tied to Athletico Madrid, and has been linked with a move for a number of years now, I feel if he was to move it wouldn’t be to come to the Premiership, let alone to partner Kuyt at Liverpool.

I feel that a move for Michael Owen would be a more realistic proposition, and one that would surely thrill supporters, albeit tempered by the fact that injuries could prove problematic to his return to form. For me it is a risk that is well worth taking.

Players who need to be removed as soon as possible include deadwood in the shape of the following:

  • Bolo Zenden – Should never have been bought in the first place, let alone included in the Champions League Final starting line-up!
  • Harry Kewell – see above.
  • Mark Gonzalez – flattered to deceive, or just a ‘donkey’?

Xabi Alonso has become half the player he once was, and Javier Mascherano and Momo Sissoko in the squad make his presence almost superfluous. Sami Hyppia deserves to be kept during the shake-up and Scott Carson seems more of a complete keeper than Pepe Reina so should be given a chance between the sticks.

All in all, I think the future is bright for Liverpool, and if Benitez invests wisely over the summer I believe the glory days could soon be back at Anfield.