Benitez tells Anfield fans: I have to sell to buy but I will get things right for you

In limbo: Gareth Barry's move to Liverpool is going slowly

Liverpool are also toiling to conclude the frustrating, summer-long transfer saga over Gareth Barry's arrival at the club but there is now no chance that the midfielder will be signed in time for the club's first pre-season friendly.

Liverpool face Tranmere in front of a 15,000 sell-out crowd at Prenton Park tomorrow before heading off to their Swiss training camp and three more friendlies while they are there.

Benitez's fear now is that Barry - banned from Aston Villa's training ground - could miss as much as two weeks of vital pre-season training.

That situation could even cause them to doubt further the size of the transfer fee for the England midfielder.

And that would underline further Benitez's cash-flow problems. He said: 'We know the situation regarding what we can spend, and we are trying to find solutions if we do not have enough money.

'And we will still try to sign players that will make us better. But if you do not have too much money, and that is clear, we will have to have a little bit of imagination to progress in the market.

'Everyone knows what our ideas are and what players we want. We are working hard with different names now.

'We know we will have to sell some players if we want some cash. So we have to
do that.

'Our aim is to bring through young players and that can save us money, money
that we can spend on big names.

'We have a fantastic group of young players, in the future they will save us money. At the moment we have to still by big names and the only way to do that is to sell players.

My boys: Rafael Benitez with new signings Andrea Dossena (right) and Philip Degen

'The fans must trust us, we are working hard during the summer with a lot of
people in different countries working for us.'

Benitez claimed he does not have to sell Xabi Alonso to finance the Barry deal, and will have one or two new strikers in before the season starts.

David Villa looks out of the club's current price range, but Benitez has admitted there has been contact with Tottenham over Robbie Keane.

'Villa is one of the players on our list, but at this moment I do not see it being an option for us.

'Keane is also one of the names we are interested in, and we are still working on other possible situations.

'There has been some contact (over Keane) but we will have to see how things progress.'

The Spaniard has raised £15m from the sales of Peter Crouch and John Arne Riise, and has brought in defenders Philipp Degen, Andrea Dossena and goalkeeper
Diego Cavalieri.

Benitez hopes that Steven Gerrard, Andriy Voronin, Jamie Carragher and Martin
Skrtel will figure at Prenton Park.