SO far this summer, despite four early signings, Liverpool have spent a net of just £3 million.
After bringing in Luis Alberto, Iago Aspas, Simon Mignolet and Kolo Toure for a combined fee of just over £23 million, Liverpool have balanced their books with the sales of Andy Carroll and Jonjo Shelvey for just north of £20 million.
It is indisputable that Liverpool’s team needs strengthening excessively with the club stumbling to a 7th place finish in last year’s Premier League.
With the owners not fascinated by the idea of extravagant spending, there may yet be further outgoings from the playing staff.
So, what players are in the firing line? Who has not quite cut the mustard and could be sacrificed for a reasonable fee?
For me, Martin Skrtel provides the club with the best chance of generating cash for potential purchases. The Slovakian is coming off the back of a frustrating campaign and, with talk of a centre-back riding high on the list of likely recruits, Skrtel’s value, upwards of £15 million, could be exploited for the financial gain of Liverpool.
As well as Skrtel, his fellow central defender Sebastian Coates looks destined for the Anfield exit doors with a £5 million price-tag being placed on his head. Follow those two sales with income for the signatures of Oussama Assaidi and Jay Spearing and the Anfield coffers could be boosted by the tune of £25 million.
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Although slightly ambitious, if anything between £20-£25 million is generated from the sale of that particular quartet, Brendan Rodgers could well have the best part of £50 million left to spend if the rumours of a pre-sales £25 million budget is anywhere near the truth. That is before the sale of Luis Suarez comes into the equation.
The most favourable outcome of the summer would be for the Uruguayan to stay at Anfield, however, if he gets his wish and leaves for the £50 million it would take to force Liverpool’s hand, then we could be talking about a transfer budget circa £100 million – a staggering amount of money.
What is achieved with that money is a completely different kettle of fish. Nevertheless, that is the next chapter in a summer of transition for Brendan Rodgers and for Liverpool as they look to negotiate a top four finish for the first time in five years.
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just don’t get this, how come we have to sell players to get new players, surely or incoming revenue outweighs our outgoings, or are we been taken for a ride
Its about cutting the wage bill along with trying to build a team, some of our players e.g. Reina are likely on 100k or more per week. The current bosses without CL don’t seem willing to sustain that expense on too many players or players that are replaceable. We do have a transfer budget, with that we also have a wage budget.
Ridiculous article. Anfield is no scrapheap and Rogers is building a strong squad without spending for the sake of it. No doubt there will be monies generated, or saved, in regards Pacheco, Spearing, Reina, Assaidi, Coates, possibly Skrtel and unfortunately Suarez. However we should all be positive about a much improved season ahead..
Ridiculous comment . Rodgers is building nothing
Rodgers has promised “exciting” signings, but how can you belive a man who justifies spending £9m on a keeper for competition with an incumbent top keeper and then loans him out for “financial” reasons. There is now no keeper competition. Rodgers is just not credible as Liverpool manger.
Fred, Mignolet was bought because Reina was looking to replace Valdes at Barca. He was always brought in as a replacement! Valdes decided to stay another year, which upset PSG, Barca and Liverpool, but the move will be on next summer. It would have been poor form for BR to wait till Reina was in demand or sold before looking for another ‘keeper. As for loaning him out – it makes good financial sense. The player has not performed for the past couple of seasons and has had it stated (by his Dad) that he wants to go to Barca. He’s probably worth £10m to us. We let him go to Napoli for a year and this probably drops to £6m, however, we get £5.5m off the wage bill and a loan signing fee. We then get the £6m next summer and actually get more for the player than if we sold him now. He only wants to go to one club on a permanent basis and the whole world knows which one…..
If we keep him and he has a shocker….. you’d not be happy then either!
Absolutely…. made a similar point at a similar time… though I reckon going to Napoli will actually keep his value, if he plays well, while fighting it out at LFC with Mignolet would have probably dropped it…. also we are apparently paying half his wages so not sure we’ll get £5.5 million of the wage bill but the loan is still a very good move by BR and FSG given the fact Reina wants to go to Barca next year.
Spot on Fred. Rodgers is a li ar.
I agree Steve. Look at the support we have all over the world, which means more money from merchandise sales, and the increased tv revenue and sponsorship we get this year – where is this money going?
People seem to foolishly think that for the club to spend money in the transfer window, that we have to have rich owners willing to put the cash in. Not the case when the club makes as much money as Liverpool does!
The wool is being pulled right over some of the fans’ eyes and they need to wake up!
Check out the accounts Matt – they’re not a pretty picture! We do indeed have good turnover, from all of the sources you mention – but we also have the 3rd highest wage bill in the premier league and a not insignificant amount of debt (which needs to be repaid and the interest paid down too). The owners have stated that we can spend any money we earn, and this looks as though it would be £20-25m. Anything above that needs to come through player sales. They have said they will not bankroll the club in a Chelsea/City manner, and without european football, we’re just generating the cashflow to buy the big name players. FSG have been very clear about their intentions and method of business, so we can not say they’ve kept us in the dark or been duplicitous.
Is it enough? I’m a passionate supporter and seeing us having 5 seasons out of the top 4 (potentially) hurts me as much as the next fan, so I would love to see them pump £200m into player acquisitions and write it off as a gift…. but that ain’t going happen so there is no point getting stressed about it.
Well said tomf. We do have debt which needs looking at urgently. Spending ridiculous amounts of money to make say 30m by getting in the champions league doesn’t make financial sense. I prefer to have a club run sensibly financially than follow the idiotic business pattern at citeh for example
Debt ? Fsg promised we would have no debt. Your talking nonsense
FSG won’t give Rodgers a massive transfer budget especially after Comolli and Dalglish’s summer transfer window of 2011 and the Andy Carroll debacle.
Totally agree. FSG is trying to trim that debt which will make us profitable once again. If I am not wrong we are in debt of around 85 million pound as of last financial year .
any club that spends 9m on a keeper then gives away a 10m keeper for free (on loan) cannot ever claim not to have money to spend
Paul,
See my comment above – it actually makes sound financial sense. An asset sitting on the shelf (bench) not doing anything does not make us stronger. He wants to go to Barca next season and we would get more money through a loan/sale next year than by holding onto him for that year. Accept that he’s going to Barca to be Valdes’ replacement and it makes the whole thing easier to understand.
Kop on and stop making dumb excuses
One minute mingolet is here to compete the next reina is on his way! Southampton have shown more intent than us..spending. 50m already! FSG are waiting to revamp anfield then they’ll sell up. Meanwhile they want the lowest possible running costs! They’re an insult to LFC and Rogers is a yes man!
Correct 100%
@matt, have to say the support we have around the world has just blown me away, after seeing the latest pics and vids made my hair stand on end, but my trust in fsg is fading fast
We’re further away from top 4 than most of us fans can imagine!
@lfcynwaderby, agree with you I don’t think the pepe loaning had much to do with br why would he care about his wages, this has been a fsg decision, but you can only cut so much bark of a tree before it dies
Hi guys,its actually not such a bad ting the way FSG are allocating funds. we wouldn’t want the same thing that got Liverpool into this 7th regular spot causes by G and hicks who simply didn’t manage the funds correctly…as for the Reina saga I don’t know but we should have signed Mario Gomez
FSG are just here to milk the cash cow the club is its sold torres mierallas wiped maxi kuyt and bellamy off the wage bill loaned out pepe on the verge of selling luis , agger and skrtel and bringing in aspas albrto kolo on and mingolet al these players are not being psyed top money neither is sturrgde or coutinio thats the plan maxium profits when they should be selling borini joe allen assaddi downing and belooking to bring in erikson bernard fred lescott ilori we missed out on bargins like david villa 4 million wanayama 10 million get ian ayre and fsg out and let the fans buy the club with investors like barcalona do cos 7th or 8th place is were we will keep ending every season
Ridiculous article. Anfield is no scrapheap and Rogers is building a strong squad without spending for the sake of it. No doubt there will be monies generated, or saved, in regards Pacheco, Spearing, Reina, Assaidi, Coates, possibly Skrtel and unfortunately Suarez. However we should all be positive about a much improved season ahead..
I like the idea of a fans purchase model akin to Barca, but we would have to accept that as ‘shareholders’ we’d be required to stump up for transfers year after year. If they could get 10 million ‘shares’ issued, then having each holder provide £10 per share per year for transfers would mean we’d have £100m to spend, debt free with no interest repayments. If the club is currently worth, say, £500m then we need only £50 per share to get the funds together…. put into this context that sounds like a good plan… Shareholders vote in a president and management board and leave the running to them for 4 years…..
I could be up for some of that – who’s going to organise it and can can we get 10 million shares sold?
David villa a bargain? The bloke is 31 and had a serious injury. His transfer fee and wages would be astronomical. You really are talking rubbish. Darren bent is more of a bargain but we are not interested in him
Hally you are correct
If there is anyone one who understand football and dealing with transfer wouldnt say we are not spending we have already spent 23 mill but with smart business have covered most of it so it means we still have 20 mill to spend and add another 25 – 30 mill with the sales of skrtel assaidi downing spearing coates which is around 50 mill and buy eriksen 15mill papadoupilis- 15 mill and arda turan – 20 mill and will have a great squad as kelly can play as center back so this way will have 2 wingers in form of turan and aspas and strikers such as suarez sturridge and back up borini and midfield or eriksen gerrard and coutinho which is full of quality. Looking forward to next season as I think after long time we have a squad which is capable of achieving top 4 and this is after spending just few millions with smart transfer business.
But the club is back to waiting and waiting til the last minute. We’ll miss out again and again. Eriksen, Bernard will go the same way as Mhiktarian….if that’s how you spell it.
Agree! Lets go back to G&H
Talk is cheap, but good players are not.
For Gods sake Eriksen is not a target, if fact he is fast becoming a bit of a joke, Walter Mitty I’d say. We were refused permission to talk to MhiKtarian until it was too late & Bernard, well, he has his choice of Clubs. Chelski loaned 23 players last season, with purchase values’ of 81 million & yest they will purchase even more this season. This is what you’re trying to compete with. We have to convince a certain standard of player that they can “star” for us a la Countinho rather that be farmed out by the likes of Chelski.
Liverpool are losing money every season with FSG stumping up the short fall to a tune of around £40m for each of the last three years. Without Champions League revenue and poor corporate facilities compared to that of our competitors, is there any surprise that we are not spending money hand over fist, especially after when it has been wasted in the past. FSG are investing in the club and are trying to clean up the mess from our previous owners which saw the club days away from going bust. They are reducing wages (we saved around £26m in wages last season by offloading the likes of Kuyt, Bellamy, Cole, Maxi, Carroll on loan plus others) and trying to run the club in a sustainable manor. This is especially important for complying with FFP. Although us Liverpool fans expect to be in the top 4 every year, challenging for the title, we also have to be realistic and realise that we have fallen way behind and have a lot of work ahead of use on and off the field.
I know this is not what fans want to hear but I do believe that we are moving in the right direction and have faith in the owners and manager. YNWA.
Bull . Wake up and see reality fool
There was a young man called Tommo,
whose posts were spat out like ammo,
he calls others a “fool”
while stubborn as a mule
but knows not his ass from his elbow.
My reading of it is that Mignolet was brought in because Reina had been expecting, and indeed agitating at one point, for a move on to Barca, something FSG were happy with due to Reina’s high wages…. but then Valdes threw a spanner in the works by staying on a year so now Pepe’s been loaned out until he can move to Barca… sure it’s annoying to hear BS from BR about competition but what else could he say in the circumstances? It’s also BS if you think about it to say it is saving them money…Reina’s still being half funded and with Mignolet wage as well it’s the same amount as pre Mignolet….it’s only saving them money as they ended up with both which was not the intention I’m sure. As to having a possible £100 million… don’t expect it all to go back into players… FSG have a stadium to rebuild. Which is fair enough to me, if just £50 million went back on players and the rest towards getting the rebuild done quicker I’d say it’s understandable…it’s a massive job FSG have taken on, people seem to forget that far too easily.
This. They have but in an interest free loan. For the first time they are showing some sense how to do business and at the same time how to manage LFC. Remember, at the moment we are not going to get all the diamonds. In the future we will.
It is a massive job but they FSG need to put money in. LFC is a worldwide franchise. They have plenty of revenue streams and lets not forget they got this huge franchise for next to nothing in the grand scale of things. We have sponsorship deals, tv revenue etc. they are not realistic about us competing for top 4. Also the mingolet deal was finalised after Valdes had already said he was staying for another season. Lesser teams are spending more money without selling. Aspas, Alberto etc are good players but they wouldn’t get into at least 6 premier league teams.
And before we bought him and give him a chance to show what he could do, would Coutinho? I don’t know how Aspas or Alberto will perform, but if they’re half as good as Coutinho and Sturridge were for us at the end of last season, then they will be money well spent.
Yeah but Mignolet was already planned and on the way…so do you lose your target or be brave and go ahead knowing Pepe will be gone in a year anyway? They stuck with the plan and now also have Reina loaned out….in the circumstances they have done really well I reckon. They are also weeding out the high wage contracts and have done so successfully…. fans have been complaining for years about us paying over the odds and not getting enough value and these guys are now trying to ensure we get high value but are still being slated…. it will take another two seasons to turn the club around, why is it so difficult for people to see that? Maybe it is just that it is difficult to accept it as we want LFC back at the top asap…. but this is a super tanker that needs a turn around not a Mini.
This! Good post Greg.
It takes time, sugar daddies are no-no.
“this is a super tanker that needs a turn around, not a mini” what if its the wrong guy on the wheels stearing it the wrong direction?
….then it’s a super tanker with the wrong guy at the controls heading in the wrong direction…. but that seems to me to have been H&G not FSG….only time will tell.
You haven’t a clue when it comes to the clubs finances mate.
On the button. Problem with this country as a whole, spend spend spend, look where it got us. The club spent 70% odd on wages alone, that’s a massive amount. You then have to pay for running the stadium paying off loans etc. When we get sponsors they do not pay their 20 million etc upfront, people think we got all these sponsors and all the money comes rolling in and as for TV, we are getting almost almost half that Chelski is getting that tells you where we are and with FSG having to pump another 47 odd million last August what more do you expect from them, people need to get real
So far this season we have signed players that seem at the very least decent squad players or at the very least seem to be more effective than the players they have essentially replaced. We have done some smart dealing so far in that we have recouped most the funds spent on transfers by way of outgoing players. Other than Pacheco, Spearing, and Assaidi, I think a relatively stringent value will need to be met in order to take the player away from Liverpool; which is why I believe we will sign at least one more player and the rest will depend on who leaves
Eriksen is a Walter Mitty character & we are not interested in him. It’s only lazy journalism that’s linking him to us.
As much as I admire Rodgers blueprint for Liverpool and he has improved the quality of play,he’s an FSG yes man.there can be no doubt they are pulling the strings.after missing out on myhatiran(?) he admitted that he was their only target.while they’re working hard behind the scenes they’re not as yet talking to anyone.hardly encouraging words.seems like the mistakes of previous seasons are being continually repeated.FSG I can appreciate that the transfer disasters of 2 years ago are only now being sorted but the first team needs quality investment. It’s either champions league or mid table mediocrity,FSG You reap what you sow!
Only target? Not talking to anyone?
I do agree that we are paying a bit high price of our mistakes. But I can also see that we are going in the right direction.
Yeah they missed out on Mkhitaryan….because he wanted to go to Dortmund and they have CL footie… BR and FSG can’t really be blamed for that, especially after just one season together…. at least they had the sense to give it a go and were prepared to stump up the money for him…it showed ambition and a willingness to pay for a target they believed in. We have been reaping what we sowed for some years now….FSG and BR are at least trying a different variety of seed.
Suarez is leaving….fact!! So lets get him sold and get the right player’s in. Although we are loosing a sublime and great player we will generate enough cash with combined sales of other players we shall surley make as a whole a greater all round stronger attacking team.
Sorry, Suarez is LFC player when window is closed… 🙂 NOT FACT
dowing