Rafa Benitez is refusing to publicly criticise the club's owners for not giving him more money in the transfer market this summer.
Despite raking in millions from player sales - including of course the £30m+ sale of Xabi Alonso to Real Madrid - the boss has found his hands tied once again.
Several senior players including Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard have been handed new contracts and as they've been given pay-rises, the owners have taken that into account and reportedly deducted those monies from this summer's transfer kitty.
Sources close to the Liverpool manager are already starting to suggest that Benitez isn't happy about the situation.
The club transfer record wasn't smashed and supporters have been left scratching their heads knowing that the squad needed strengthening to build on last season's challenge and that was before Alonso was sold.
Rafa said: "I don't know too many managers happy with the money that they have to spend. There are two or three clubs around the world that have big, big money, but the rest of the managers I am sure will ask for more money.
"The lack of funds is not impacting on my commitment. Always when you have some difficulties, you have to work harder, and I am committed to that.
"Something has changed in football in the last year as there are other clubs spending big money. It's difficult for us to control from our point of view, we have to work with our players and with the budget we had, and that is what we will do.
"People are asking if I'm disappointed there is no David Villa-type signing, but you have to sign the players you need, and it can be difficult to accommodate big players.
"To bring in a big, big name, you often have to change everything. It was the same situation when we brought in Keane, and people were saying 'but Gerrard and Torres are doing really well'.
"Gerrard, playing as a second striker he scored 21 and 24. How many second strikers can you bring in that are going to score that many goals?
"We have our front pairing, and I feel we have back up. Ngog and Babel are very good young players, Kuyt is another striker, Voronin is another striker. Sometimes big, big signings mean you have to change things.
"We have to adapt to our situation, and our situation is that we have enough strikers here and we needed to improve in other areas.
"We are trying to progress. How do we progress? We have brought in players, and people might say 'ah yes, but you've lost this player and this player'. But we'll only really know when we start playing.
"If these new players are really good on the pitch then people will say we are going in the right direction. So we will have to wait and see what happens.
"We were doing a lot of contract extensions because we wanted to keep the squad together. It is a young squad but getting more and more experienced.
"We have signed the players that we needed. We needed to find a replacement for Alonso, and Aquilani is a top class player. We wanted to improve in the wide areas, and we have brought in Johnson.
"I hope we have more than last season. Why? These players - Nabil, Lucas, Insua, Ngog, Babel – are young players and have more experience in the Premier League now. The squad is still quite young, and with more experience we hope it will be better.
"If you analyse the players we have already signed, they are players with quality. With Johnson we needed a little bit more quality at right back.
"Yes, we have lost something with Xabi Alonso but we couldn't stop him from going. We have tried to manage that loss and have brought someone in, Aquilani, who we feel can help us win the games that we were drawing at home last season."
