Liverpools Summer

Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish completes a summer of bloodletting at Anfield with a leaner meaner squad
At the last, Liverpool's bloodletting was complete. This has been a summer of revolution at Anfield, a great leap forward of unprecedented proportions.


By Rory Smith



Kenny Dalglish and Damien Comolli, at the behest of the club's owners, have ushered 19 players out of Liverpool's doors. The final two, Raul Meireles and Philipp Degen, departed with just minutes of the transfer window to spare. The past is finished. Let the future begin.

Fourteen players have been sold or released, and a further five dismissed temporarily, on loan, most notably Joe Cole and Alberto Aquilani.

An astounding £30 million has been wiped from the wage chitty, and a little over £20 million raised in funds.

The phrase "trimming of the squad" does not quite fit; this has been all-out attack on the errors of the past. Only Brad Jones and Danny Wilson remain of Roy Hodgson's signings, and only three of the 14 signed by Rafael Benítez in his final two years at the club. Less than a year after the putsch which brought Fenway Sports Group to Anfield, Liverpool have undergone a second Night of the Long Knives. This one, though, has lasted all summer.

Some were rather more willing than others to stand aside. Paul Konchesky accepted a wage cut to join Leicester. Nabil El Zhar, Emiliano Insua, Milan Jovanovic and, eventually, Degen agreed to cancel their contracts, albeit for lucrative settlements.


Liverpool will continue to pay for the mistakes that have gone before. Lille insist Liverpool will continue to supply 60 per cent of Cole's £80,000-a-week wages, meaning Anfield's finances will be drained to the tune of £2.5 million for a season in which the 29 year-old plays in France.

Christian Poulsen’s move to Evian has been subsidised, too, but that is rather the point: FSG see their glass as half-full, not half-empty. At least the £2.5 million paid to Cole while he is in France is a saving of £1.65 million. That is the ruthlessness that has pervaded Liverpool’s summer.

FSG were determined to build a more cost-effective squad, and were prepared to withstand the short-term financial cost to do so. Hence their decision to spend big and spend early, regardless of the knock-on effects later in the summer.

"The owners were happy to take risks and happy for us to spend money," reflected Comolli. "A lot of owners would have said the squad is too big, so you need to reduce, and then when you have done that, bring some players in, but that was never the approach. I told them we would need to buy first and they were very, very brave to accept that."

Nowhere was that cut-throat approach better witnessed than with Meireles. The Portuguese was not desperate to leave Anfield, but was left with no choice after seeing Jordan Henderson and Charlie Adam recruited in midfield and a promise to augment his £35,000-a-week wage, should his first season be a success, broken.

Discussions over a pay rise never started. In the end, he had to hand in a transfer request and forego a loyalty payment to smooth his escape to Chelsea.

Few Liverpool fans would have sold Meireles, particularly not to a bitter foe and especially not for £12 million, roughly what Hodgson paid for the Portugal international last summer. That is the measure of the new Liverpool, though. Those who are not required will be cast aside. Dalglish wants only those soldiers he deems necessary; a bloated squadron is a cumbersome one.

"For me, the players they have signed have largely been British, which takes me back to when I started watching Liverpool," said Craig Bellamy, the final piece of incoming business carried out by Dalglish. "It looks so familiar to me, so to be part of it is such a huge honour."

Dalglish has built the squad he wanted: young, energetic, mostly home-grown, and with a passion for the club – but it fits FSG's vision, too. The squad is streamlined – 22 senior players, supported by youth – with this summer's six signings, Bellamy apart, earning a combined, and relatively modest, £13 million-a-season in wages.

That is a saving of £17 million-a-season. FSG are no asset-strippers, though. They have spent £114 million on players in eight months, plus wages, with £75 million regained in transfer fees. This is not a rerun of Liverpool's recent past. This is the start of the future.

Key Anfield departures: Raul Meireles (Chelsea) £12m, David Ngog (Bolton Wanderers) £4m, Paul Konchesky (Leicester City) £1.5m, Daniel Ayala (Norwich City) £800,000, Gerardo Bruna (Blackpool) £750,000,Joe Cole (Lille) loan, Emiliano Insua (Sporting Lisbon) undisclosed, Chris Mavinga (Rennes) undisclosed, Sotirios Kyrgiakos (Wolfsburg) undisclosed, Christian Poulsen (Evian) undisclosed, Alberto Aquilani (AC Milan) undisclosed, Milan Jovanovic (Anderlecht) undisclosed, Tom Ince (Blackpool) undisclosed, Nabil El Zhar (Levante) undisclosed.

Good read that

35 Grand a week wages for Raul wasn't that high in fairness

Let the new beginnings begin

I'm very happy with the squad for the first time in years.

Serpheus wrote:I'm very happy with the squad for the first time in years.

And that comming from you speaks volumes

I was absolutely delighted with the squad until Raul left tbh. We are one creative player short imo. Hopefully once Gerrard is back we will be ok. We have a greta mix of youth and experience. I cant see us spending alot next season as I expect to see Coady and Suso and Morgan step up

crouchy wrote:I was absolutely delighted with the squad until Raul left tbh. We are one creative player short imo. Hopefully once Gerrard is back we will be ok. We have a greta mix of youth and experience. I cant see us spending alot next season as I expect to see Coady and Suso and Morgan step up

I think if we get CL next year, we will have to add mote quality.
As for now, I am very happy

I mean like we wont add as much to the squad as we did this year. We will add one or two players of real quality IF we get cl football. I think Hazard would be signed tbh

hey if my sig is too big just take it off

crouchy wrote:hey if my sig is too big just take it off

Yeah mate it was a bit on the biggish side.

fair enough hahaha i wasnt quite sure !

Phil Thompson today reflected on a successful summer in the transfer market and an impressive start to the season on the pitch, and declared: "Something big is happening at Liverpool."

With seven new signings arriving over the summer and a number of fringe players having departed the club, Thompson has been thrilled with the way Dalglish and his staff have gelled the team together so quickly, and he believes all the signs are now pointing towards a bright future at Anfield.

"I like the way the transfer business has been done, going back to January as well," Thompson told Liverpoolfc.tv. "A lot of business has been conducted without too much press interference or people knowing too much about it. It's been done in a very Liverpool-like way and I'm extremely pleased for Kenny Dalglish and Damien Comolli for what they've achieved. You have to take your hats off to Fenway Sports Group as well who have dug deep.

"Over the last couple of years the strength in depth hasn't been there. It's said in football you're only as good as what you've got on the bench and that's fair. You need a good squad to get you through a season and our squad has now been strengthened with different qualities of player. We now have a fantastic squad to worry most teams.

"I am very excited. You've got Stewart Downing on the left and also Jose Enrique, someone who had a difficult first season at Newcastle but who settled, got to know the game and became a very good defender who is good going forward. With Charlie Adam and Jordan Henderson in the midfield there's a 'Britishness' about the team and I think that's because we lost a lot of the lesser games last year. We could always match the top teams but we had to rectify it against the lesser sides."

While the deals for Henderson, Adam, Downing, Alexander Doni and Enrique were completed well in advance of the transfer window closing, moves for Sebastian Coates and Craig Bellamy were left until late - and Thompson believes they will prove to be two inspired signings.

"Everyone thought we would be going for someone else, but they've gone for Coates and might just have struck gold," he said. "He's an example of a quality youth player if you look at how well he did in the Copa America - and I've no doubt Luis Suarez gave rave reviews about him as well.


"I see Bellamy as being the same as when Robbie Fowler came back. He came back for nothing, the salary is easily manageable because of what's gone out. It's a no-brainer. It's great to have - and he'll hate me for saying this - that maverick, someone who can come on and change a game. He'll be saying 'I want to be playing' and that's what you want from someone. He will add so much to this squad that we will all be drooling.

"I have to mention Luis Suarez as well because he just excites me all the time, not just with his skills but with his attitude. The Carling Cup at Exeter - he probably didn't even know Exeter existed, and he went down there and played, ran and chased down defenders. The smile on his face shows he is enjoying his football.

"If you look at the squad now I think something big is happening, but we have been there and had our false dawns before. We are a little more guarded now and rightly so, but as we've seen, since the change in ownership we all feel much more content and we're happy with what we're seeing from within the football club. Now we need it to be right on the pitch.

"Manchester United knew they had to improve because if they'd kept their same squad we'd have beaten them this year. Chelsea have had to strengthen at the end and certainly Manchester City will be a problem, so it will be hard.

"The big games didn't worry me last year, it was the lesser ones and if we can get them right I think we're in for a great season."

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/latest-news/something-big-happening-at-lfc

Rumours Shelvey going to BPool on loan

No harm