Kenny Dalglish defends Liverpool's season We are excited about a lot of the things that have gone on here. When you consider in January the year before we went out of the FA Cup in the first game. We were out of the Carling Cup but in the Europa League. We were four points off relegation, so I don't think this has been too bad a return this year. Although Dalglish has bought players to the value of £120 million since taking over, he suggests in real terms he has only spent £23 million when sales are taken into account. He said: "Financially, the figures that are bandied about, to me, don't match up with the balance sheet that came out a couple of weeks ago. It said in July 2011 that there was a £40 million deficit in transfers but since then we have sold £17 million worth of players. To me that brings it down to £23 million, so that's not a bad spend is it? If a boy who left school at 15 can see the financial figures, well more educated people than me can work it out themselves. For me, to get a trophy back after six years, to get in to Europe at the first time of asking, it's not a bad ask is it? He added that the owners "are educated people. I'm sure they can understand it. They understand sport as well. If they understand that side of it, they will understand what we are trying to do. There is a bigger picture for the football club. It's very rare you get things turned around in 12 months. Cotton departed after a fraught season for the Anfield PR department because of the Luis Suárez race abuse row.