Houllier: Expectations are unrealistic

"It's never easy when you have a public which demands and expects success all the time," he admitted. "I would say that sometimes those expectations are unrealistic.

"Look at Manchester United and Chelsea, for example. We don't have their resources, and yet we are expected to battle with them for the top places. But we are not in the same category.

"We simply can't go out and spend £28million or £30million on one player, as United did with Veron and Ferdinand. We can't match the spending we have seen from Chelsea."

Houllier has spent wisely in the summer, forking out only only £8.5million for Harry Kewell and Steve Finnan.

"What we have to do is to try to match them by finding other solutions, and we are working hard at that," he added.