Coutinho’s a bargain buy, but would you now trust Rodgers with £100m?

HOW much will Brendan Rodgers have to spend at LFC this summer? Is £100 million unrealistic? In my opinion we need at least that sort of money, spent wisely, to get us from being mid-table to top four.

But is Brendan Rodgers the right man to trust to spend it wisely? I think Rodgers will, like Kenny Dalglish, be given real cash to spend, especially with the increased TV revenue coming in.

There is no debate surrounding the fact Dalglish was given real money to spend as LFC manager. Whether that money was well spent or not is another matter. Should Rodgers get credit for making Dalglish’s signings look good (or do they even look any good is another topic of debate)? Let’s deal in facts and then the debates and opinion can follow.

How much has Rodgers spent gross? Net?

Depending on where you look you get different figures on transfers so these are just indicative: (roughly right)

Players in:

Joe Allen £15m, Daniel Sturridge £12m, Fabio Borini £12m, Coutinho £8.8m, Nuri Sahin £4.4m, Oussama Assaidi £3.5m, Samed Yesil £1.1m

Total: £56.8 million

Players out:

Charlie Adam £5.5m, Dirk Kuyt £800,000 Andy Carroll Loan fee £1.1m, Alberto Aquilani (undisclosed but believed to be £1.7m)

Total: £7.4 million

So that’s 56.8 – 7.4 = £49.4m net over two transfer windows – but that’s only half the picture as so many high earning players have been released on free transfers and a number of other players on loan, not just Carroll.

Now I am going to assume all of what we read about players being on more performance-related pay is true. I am also going to assume before Rodgers, players where on higher wages so the salaries of Allen, Courtinho, Sturridge, Borini, Yesil, Assaidi are offset by salary savings of Kuyt, Adam, Carroll and Aquilani. I think in reality the salaries would be more than offset and there are savings.

We are lead to believe Joe Cole was on £120k a week, so let’s assume the following players average out at £70k a week as most of these players (Fabio Aurelio, Maxi Rodriguez, Joe Cole, Nuri Sahin (loaned in and terminated loan), Alexander Doni, Craig Bellamy) were free transfers and so paid very well to reflect the lack of transfer fee.

6 x 70,000 = £420k a week which works out as £21,840,000 a year.

I think this figure is a conservative estimate.

So we could say in reality the saving Rodgers has made in wages mean LFC has spent net 52.4 – 21.84 = £30.56m over two transfer windows.
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There are a number of players on loan and all, or hopefully most, of their wages are off our books (e.g. Jay Spearing, Dani Pacheco) but we don’t exactly know so to keep things simple let’s just ignore them.

Now £30.56 is not a lot for us to spend over two transfer windows.

How successful have Rodgers’ transfer dealings really been?

Joe Allen age 23: Joe started brightly but his star has faded of late thanks to injuries and a ‘resulting’ lack of form. So, not very successful so far and not looking like value for money at £15m. He got the plaudits from the pundits, or at least he did at the start of his LFC career but in my opinion he never really did anything noteworthy.

(Nuri Sahin: Looked like an expensive error but I’m struggling to find out if we got any of the money paid for the loan back so at present £4.4m written off.)

Oussama Assaidi age 24: I like him the rare few times he’s been on the pitch and at £3.5m he may prove to be a good signing. At present not a great purchase.

Samed Yesil age 18: One for the future with a huge reputation but not seen anything yet. At £1.1m and at his age, we can afford him the time and space to develop.

Fabio Borini age 22: Fabio has had two big injuries and not really got into any rhythm or of form. Not looking like money well spent but is it fair to judge a player who has had no stability and moved so often over the last few years? A young man in a foreign country and injured; call me generous but I’ll make up my mind later. £12m not looking like money well spent, yet.

Daniel Sturridge age 23: Hit the ground running and looks at home in a LFC shirt, a rare statement. £13m well spent so far, an even rarer a statement.

Coutinho age 20: Looks like a class act! He’s a quality player and again, seems at home in a LFC shirt (getting less rare, this statement!) At £8.8m he was a bargain by Premiership standards, not just over the top LFC prices.

So out of the six players still at the club one has been injury plagued, another not been given enough of a chance with the first team, so that leaves four players. Out of those four buys, two are real first team successes – not great if you think two out of six – but what’s promising is its Rodgers’ last two buys. In a recent interview Rodgers explained that the scouting network had been improved from the summer. Maybe Mr Rodgers is learning about LFC and the types of players that will succeed here.

Coutinho does look a bargain. Even ignoring our own past big spending on Carroll, Downing and Henderson we can look at Hazard, Mata, Oscar and Santi Cazorla. Hazard (age 22) cost £35m plus £6m to his agent, Oscar (age 21) £25m, Mata (age 23) £23.5m but that’s money bags Chelsea. Arsenal’s Santi Cazorla (age 28) only cost £12m.

Coutinho’s stats: 6 games, 2 goals, 3 assists and 12 shots. Oscar: 27 games, 1 goal, 4 assists, 44 shots. Hazard: 28 games, 8 goals, 8 assists, 56 shots. Coutinho looks like a major bargain.

The last player bought by Rodgers looks amazing business and Sturridge looks good too. May be with this improved scouting network we can trust him?

But then again, one swallow doesn’t make a summer…
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