A Liverpool legend once sang money cant’t buy you love, but there is one man on Merseyside who would probably disagree.

As Liverpool prepare to face Stoke at Anfield on Wednesday, looking to put their first Premier League points on the board in the new campaign, manager Rafa Benitez has managed to fit in a spot of bargain basement shopping to fill a gaping hole in the Reds defence.

European journeyman Sotiris Kyrgiakos is likely to be recruited at a cost of around £2 million and boasts a CV that includes Rangers, Panathinaikos and Eintracht Frankfurt – hardly a collection to set the pulses racing of expectant Reds fans.

The arrival of the Greek international will almost certainly come too late to prevent Liverpool fielding 18-year-old Spaniard Daniel Ayala – who looked hopelessly out of his depth in last season’s FA Youth Cup final mauling by Arsenal - in the heart of their defence against a physically demanding Potters side.

With Martin Skrtel struggling to recover from a jaw injury sustained against Tottenham at the weekend and Daniel Agger back on the treatment table – a home from home for the Dane – the lack of depth in Benitez’s current squad has been crudely exposed with the season barely begun.

Hull’s Michael Turner and Wednesday’s opponent Ryan Shawcross are both seemingly out of reach, leaving Benitez to turn his attention to a player who is unlikely to have been top of his shopping list when the reliable Sami Hyypia first announced he would be leaving Liverpool to play out his career in Germany.

The Liverpool manager, who was reportedly promised £20 million on top of anything he raised in player sales when he signed his new contract, is currently sitting on an £8 million profit for his summer trading to date. The departures of Xabi Alonso, Alvaro Arbeloa, Sebastien Leto, Jack Hobbs and Paul Anderson have generated around £40 million, while Glen Johnson and Alberto Aquilani have cost the Reds in the region of £32 million.

The Spaniard, who is never shy in volunteering an opinion, has so far refrained from criticising co-owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks for failing to make funds available, but should The Reds fail to pick up maximum points at Anfield on Wednesday, we can expect him to bite his tongue no longer.

Benitez has a history of making principled stands that have brought his tenure at his previous clubs to unseemly premature ends.

He walked out of Real Madrid, where he coached the youth team, following a dispute with the president, he quit Extramadura for the same reason, and he famously left Valencia claiming promises had been broken over transfer policy – he wanted a sofa and they bought him a lampshade.

Kyrgiakos will not enjoy the analogy, for he has been scouted in football’s lighting department rather than its more luxurious soft furnishings section. And as guaranteed as a sale at DFS, the Americans are playing with fire and risking not only the wrath of their manager but also his future at the club.

The Reds looked dangerously short on creativity in their season opener against Tottenham, with only the late introduction of Yossi Benayoun providing any penetrative spark.

But long-term Benitez target and Valencia playmaker David Silva is unlikely to be winging his way to Anfield despite reports claiming the Liverpool manager had all but secured a deal only to be told the money was not there by the two men guarding the purse strings.

Results will dictate whether or not Benitez directs his ire at his employers or decides to quietly make-do with the players at his disposal. But should he decide the current financial state of the club is preventing him from doing his job, he may just decide he would be better off elsewhere.