It's time to forget the previous few seasons and look forward.

Fresh in the air you can smell the speculation that manager Rafa Benitez was ready to quit last week after the whole Gareth Barry transfer situation. If you sniff up for long enough you can also still get a whiff of the Xabi Alonso leaving Liverpool story, Robbie Keane being handed the sacred number 7 shirt and the horrors of Wednesday's game in Liege.

So to go through those few points seperately starting with the Rafa Benitez leaving story I will give my first blog and I hope you all enjoy.

The rumours flew all summer long, just as much as hearing Ronaldo joining Real Madrid there was the big saga of Gareth Barry and Liverpool. Yes as a Liverpool fan after seeing how well Barry and Gerrard linked up for England it would be a delight to see them do it at club level too, as every fan knows the transfer targets should be selected by the manager and if it will improve the team and funds are available the Chairman should support his number one man.

As we know the American owners have caused plenty of controversy for Liverpool since taking over and to then start medling with Benitez's transfers has made them as hated as ever. The only thing that can make the hatred even greater would be for them to either sack Benitez or push him that bit too far to the point where he clears his desk and walks away. If rumours are to be believed Rafa was at that point last week when he was being blamed for the Gareth Barry saga, now I believe that Liverpool and Villa have been idiots this summer, with Villa pricing Barry out of a move and Liverpool pricing Carson out of a deal with Villa. Had this of not happened Liverpool would probably have recieved £5million or more for Scott Carson rather than the £3.25million West Brom have parted with.

Gareth Barry is by no means worth £18million but for the Liverpool board to say he is worth £12million maximum is bang out of order. He is not their player to be putting prices on his head. Yes, they can say this is our maximum offer and our final offer is fine but to be telling another club the value of their players is wrong, and I'm sure if Chelsea were to come in and make another bid for Gerrard and say he is only worth £20million, Liverpool would tell them to shove it because they think he is worth much more. It's a two way street you stupid Yank's, I am by no means saying all American's are like this just the two muppets in charge on Merseyside.

Rafa Benitez is by far the best manager we have had for a long time and we need to keep him on board, even if we don't win the league this season. The club is stepping in the right direction so lets continue to get behind the gaffer and build on what happened last season and what will happen this time around.

Still linking to the whole Gareth Barry story is that of the possible departure of Xabi Alonso, apparently for Barry to sign Alonso had to leave first. Juventus had apparently agreed a price with Liverpool for Xabi but then wanted to lower the fee, Arsenal have been linked to him all summer as well. This lead to comparisons between Alonso and Barry and debates as too which player the club would be better off with. My personal opinion is that Alonso is the better player and although as I stated Barry and Gerrard do link up very well and yes it would be delightful to have those linking up at Anfield, Alonso is a better all round player and should only be allowed to depart if a very good offer is placed.

One major signing this season was that of Robbie Keane for £19million plus clauses and I'm sorry but I do not think he is worth anywhere near that price tag and think we have had our pants pulled down by Tottenham. I hope I am proven wrong and I do hope he can link up brilliantly with Torres and bring glory to Liverpool, he is definately a good player and does do a lot around the park. My biggest worry is the pressures of the famous Liverpool number 7 shirt and recently Kewell and Smicer did not live up to those previous legends of King Kenny and Keegan.

Keane was expected to start his goal record for Liverpool on Wednesday night against Standard Liege but instead the team where given the run around and totally out played. I'm not going to lay into them too much because we all seen Reina make a save off the line, we all know the penalty should never have been given as it was out the box and in my opinion we should have also made a different substitute selection. I have never been a fan of Voronin and although he is more proven than David Ngog I would much rather have seen Ngog's name on the team sheet and then also see him come on when we were struggling. Anfield has been a Champions League fortress for years now and I do believe Liverpool will put everything right in the second leg at home, this is why I'm not going to say too much about the first leg. All I do intend to say is that Keane and Torres did not link up as well as I would have liked and Dossena looked a bit dangerous at the back, but as has been pointed out, remember back to last season when Martin Skrtel made his debut against Havant and Waterlooville and was totally shocking. He went on too have a fairly good season and I hope Keane and Dossena do the same.

With the first game coming up and now only hours away I feel that I should name the team I would most like to see this season, this is not the team I would like to see selected against Sunderland. This is just simply the team I would select if everyone was fit and back from international duty all at the same time.

Having stayed with Rafa's typical 4-2-3-1 formation to make it more realistic the only question marks I put over my own selection there is maybe Arbeloa instead of Degen and Skrtel instead of Agger. There has been talks between fans that I know suggesting three defenders and playing Carragher, Agger and Skrtel but I can't see Rafa doing this at all and think it is more likely a rotation will take place.

For now that's what I have to say, but come tomorrow there may be some more. So keep your eyes peeled.