Did you know that Rafa Benitez has spent £183m (edit) on transfers during his tenure at Liverpool. Yes, you heard that right. Rafa Benitez has spent over £183m during his stint as manager and director of transfer operations at Liverpool. This of course refers to transfer fees alone; it does not refer to player salaries. This added, Benitez has surely broke the £220m ($410m) barrier on player fees.

As far as I can tell, Benitez has spent more on players during his tenure at Liverpool than Alex Ferguson has spent on players at EPL Champions Manchester United during the same period of time. In fact, Benitez has spent more on players since he took over at Liverpool than any other EPL club except Chelsea during the same period of time.

The Spaniard has no monetary excuses not to be seriously challenging for the EPL title this season. His club's owners, the squabbling George Gillett and Tom Hicks, have backed him and he must deliver. I am very skeptical that this will happen.

edit: In response to the comment, Benitez's total player sales total £85m, making his real expenditure on players around £100m. Does this amount supersede the real transfer expenditure of Alex Ferguson during the same period of time? As far as I can tell, even if we say Ferguson spent £35m on Carlos Tevez, the real expenditure of Man Utd does not total more than £90m since 2004. Benitez has no way out of his requirement: it would be an failure on his part if he does not seriously challenge for the EPL crown this season.