Soccer/Champions League/Follow-up: Rafael Benitez returned to Liverpool in triumph yesterday but despite the joyous scenes that greeted his team's open-top bus on the streets of the city he remains intent upon reshaping the squad, with a number of the side who hoisted the club's first European Cup in 21 years set to leave in the summer.

The Spaniard will not rest easy on the back of Wednesday's remarkable success in Istanbul and will instead seek to overhaul the playing staff. For many of them, the triumph in the Ataturk Stadium marked their farewell appearance for Liverpool with those expected to depart including Jerzy Dudek, whose breathtaking double save from Andriy Shevchenko in extra-time was bettered only by his heroics in the penalty shoot-out.

The Germany midfielder Dietmar Hamann and the Czech striker Milan Baros are also likely to leave. The striker's compatriot Vladimir Smicer, who scored Liverpool's second goal and converted what turned out to be the winning penalty, has been told he can leave when his contract expires next month as the manager sets his sights upon claiming the club's first title in what would be 16 years.

"My responsibility is to make decisions," Benitez said yesterday. "I have a clear idea about the future and I'll talk to my players about what I want to do. We will speak. We knew the players before the final, so this occasion hasn't changed the way we are thinking. I want to take Liverpool to the Premiership title - for me, that is the challenge now.

"I said when I first came here that the squad was 60 per cent towards where I wanted it to be and now it is maybe 70 per cent, but there is still much to do."

The Spaniard will have those funds, with a kitty amounting to around £25 million. That has largely been generated by this remarkable cup run, with its knock-on effects in terms of sponsorship and TV revenues, and may swell further should the manager move players on.

Many of the squad begin their holidays this weekend, with Benitez himself due to take a short break visiting his parents in Madrid, but he will return to Melwood next week to begin planning Liverpool's future.

Discussions will also take place with Steven Gerrard and his representatives at SFX aimed at tying the England midfielder to a new contract at Anfield, though they will have to wait until the chief executive Rick Parry returns from his own break in Barbados. Benitez is now convinced the captain will stay at the club despite persistent interest from Chelsea, with Gerrard's own reaction in the aftermath on Wednesday suggesting as much.

Yet the likely departures of other members of the squad will illustrate a ruthlessness to Benitez that has not surfaced since his no-nonsense approach to Michael Owen's stalled contract negotiations last summer.

Benitez's squad remains very much a work in progress, but his task will be made easier with the club as European champions. Dudek's stock has rarely been higher than after his stunning performance at the Ataturk Stadium and targets who might have been wavering over a potential move to a side who finished 37 points off the top of the Premiership last season - and are waiting on Uefa to grant them permission to defend their trophy - could now be easier persuaded to join. The Villarreal goalkeeper Jose Reina is close to signing for around £6 million, with interest ongoing in the Feyenoord striker Dirk Kuyt and Real Zaragoza's Gabriel Milito.

"Other players will see we have a good side and, maybe, some of them will decide to come to us because we'll have a good chance of claiming more titles now," said Benitez.

"The boss is trying to build something here, a new team," said Smicer. "He told me two months ago I would be leaving this summer. I appreciate the honesty . . . He told me if I trained properly I'd still have a role to play in the remaining games. I never thought that might include a place at the Champions League final. That was the perfect way to bow out."

Progress on the domestic front is becoming Benitez's main priority. "We are analysing why we only finished fifth in the Premier League," he added. "We need to learn why we did some things so badly this season. This (the Champions League) is not enough."