Football FanCast columnist Rob Facey looks ahead to Liverpool's crucial clash with Standard Liege tonight and wonders what this could mean for Benitez's transfer hopes before the window shuts.

Liverpool host Standard Liege in a game worth £20m tonight, but manager Rafa Benitez insists that money is not on his mind.

"For me, the first thing is silverware," the Liverpool manager said before tonight's second leg with Standard Liege, as reported in The Telegraph.

"I like to talk about trophies; that is the main thing. The Champions League is also about money, and you have to take the two things together. But we are here to win titles, not to make money."

The thing is, all that Liverpool have talked about in the past year is money.

Money for the stadium, no money for the stadium, money for Gareth Barry, no money for Gareth Barry and too much money for Robbie Keane.

The club are expected to sell either at least one of Alonso, Voronin and Pennant before the window shuts in order to finance the purchase of Riera after they seem to have finally let go of the hope of signing Gareth Barry.

The sentiment behind Benitez's comments will be music to the Liverpool's fans ears who are desperate for more silverware although to the confusion of football fans everywhere the Reds are a real force in European football.

The worry, however, is that the money Liverpool should earn if they progress, as is expected, will just be swallowed up in the board's desire to build a new stadium rather than being pumped back into the squad.

This has been a huge burden on the club and is slowly swallowing up the club's expenses, although not on the same level as Everton, it must be added.

Liverpool could either be manically busy this week or, more realistically, will do very little before the window shuts, Albert Riera aside. This means that Benitez will have failed to bring in Barry, but will this be excuse enough when the Reds fail to win the Premier League?

Benitez has been given a tough ride by the board who, despite supporting him in some instances, seem to question his judgement in others.

The day Tom Hicks and George Gillett start making footballing decisions as well as business ones, you know that the club could be in for a long season.