Treading into the nose-bleeding territory of £20 million plus signings is to take a risk of Juan Sebastian Veron proportions but it’s one Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez clearly felt was an expensive necessity.

In signing Fernando Torres for a reported 36 million euros Benitez is staking his reputation and his legacy on a single piece of transfer business and the huge fee has made bloggers like redfloyd at Have you ever been to Liverpool extremely sceptical.

Others, such as Red Cauldron, are much more excited at Liverpool finally having made a big name signing. In recent years, front-men Emile Heskey, El-Hadji Diouf, Djibril Cisse and Dirk Kuyt have cost a combined £50 million yet not one has had Ferguson, Wenger or Mourinho running for cover.

During the dominant days of the 70s and 80s, however, money was no object. Kenny Dalglish and Peter Beardsley arrived for British record transfer fees, while the £900,000 signing of Mark Lawrenson, a defender, represented Abramovich-esque spending in 1981.

Yet you have to go back to 1995 to find a Liverpool summer signing exciting enough to lead the opening Match of the Day credits of the season. Beset by problems off the field, however, Stan Collymores £8.5 million star shone only intermittently.

From Collymore to Paul Ince to Cisse, Liverpool fans have been proclaiming consecutive summer signings as saviours for almost two decades. For Torres to live up to the deistic nickname of his number nine shirts previous incumbent, he will have to deliver, not a second Champions League title in four years, but a first league championship in 18.

Padraic Halpin, London