Liverpool's chances of defending their Champions League title received a boost last night when senior figures at Uefa indicated a compromise could be reached to allow the Merseyside club into next season's competition.
A Uefa source said Liverpool would not be handed direct entry, but would probably have to play one qualifying round despite being champions. The sixteenth and final guaranteed place among the 32 teams who contest the group stage would go to Fenerbahçe as champions of Turkey, which as the tenth strongest country in Uefa is due one direct entrant.
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Most intriguingly, Peter Crouch, the 6ft 7in Southampton striker who missed out on his England debut in Chicago last night because of an ankle injury, is on the list of top targets. Benítez is a keen admirer and sees Crouch as the type of forward who can get the better of Premiership defences - something Liverpool's present strikers managed too rarely last season. Benítez is undeterred that the 24-year-old has already played for six clubs and not yet established himself as a prolific marksman.
Sources close to Crouch last night indicated that the Macclesfield-born forward would relish a switch to Anfield. 'We're aware that Peter has caught Benítez's eye and that Liverpool and a number of other clubs are potentially interested in him, most in the Premiership but also some in Italy,' said one associate. 'If Liverpool made an offer I'm sure we could do a deal.'
Midfield is Liverpool's most pressing area, though. Steven Gerrard has made the acquisition of at least one world-class midfielder a condition of committing his foreseeable future to Anfield.
Owen Hargreaves, who is keen to play in the Premiership to cement a place in the England squad for the 2006 World Cup, is likely to arrive from Bayern Munich. But he would not provide the width and penetration Benítez wants. That could pave the way for a move for Manchester City's Shaun Wright-Phillips.
Does this mean we could get Hargreaves, Crouch and SWP? That'd be quite the haul!
