Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish completes a summer of bloodletting at Anfield with a leaner meaner squad
By Rory Smith
01 Sep 2011
At the last, Liverpool's bloodletting was complete. This has been a summer of revolution at Anfield, a great leap forward of unprecedented proportions.
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 BenÃtez 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.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/liverpool/8735693/Liverpool-manager-Kenny-Dalglish-completes-a-summer-of-bloodletting-at-Anfield-with-a-leaner-meaner-squad.html
