Liverpool Cannot Afford Another Transfer Window Like Last Summer's

Liverpool’s 1-0 home win over Stoke City earlier this season, in November to be precise, might have seemed unremarkable on the face of it, but it provided a bold statement on the Anfield club’s transfer policy.

Brendan Rodgers left £87 million worth of summer signings on the bench for the Premier League fixture, with Dejan Lovren, Alberto Moreno, Adam Lallana, Emre Can and Lazar Markovic all omitted from the Reds’ starting lineup.

It was an understandable reaction from Rodgers, whose side had won just one of their previous eight games in all competitions. Quite simply, the signings that had been delivered to the Liverpool boss by the club’s notorious transfer committee just weren’t doing the job.

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By reverting to the very basics of his tactical mechanism, Rodgers has been able to salvage Liverpool’s season, with the Anfield club now well-placed for a title and for the Premier League top-four places.

Since then, some of Liverpool’s summer signings have recovered their form, with Markovic, Moreno and Can in particular playing a significant role in their team’s resurgence towards the top end of the Premier League table.

But while things might have turned out well for Rodgers and Liverpool they cannot afford another off-season transfer window like last summer’s. The Northern Irishman has proved himself as a coach and a motivator by moulding so many loose parts into a coherent unit, but would he be able to repeat the feat a second time around?

While Liverpool are certainly no Premier League minnows, they do not possess the financial clout of some of their rivals. Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City and even Arsenal all carry more transfer-market muscle than the Anfield club, meaning that Liverpool’s margin for error in the window is somewhat narrower.

United can afford to splurge £300,000 a week on a loan striker still recovering from a serious injury, as they have done with Radamel Falcao. Even Arsenal have the financial clout to take a calculated gamble on Danny Welbeck—a striker who hardly scores—for the sum of £16 million. Liverpool don’t have the same luxury.

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Although Rodgers has finally managed to eke a degree of form out of his summer signings, he still has a major deficiency within his squad that he must address. There remains a Luis Suarez-shaped void in Liverpool’s front line, despite Liverpool spending £20 million to compensate for his departure to Barcelona in the summer.

He might have endured a dismal start at the club, but Rickie Lambert appears to have found a role at Liverpool, even if he is still something of a stylistic outcast in Rodgers’ eyes. And yet the former Beetroot factory worker is hardly the pedigree of attacker needed to replace Suarez. 

Given his ongoing struggle to find a role in Rodgers’ Liverpool team, it seems likely that the club will attempt to offload Mario Balotelli in the summer, although there might not be many takers for the infuriating Italian international. It’s not that he’s a bad player, it’s just that he’s certainly not a Rodgers player.

The Liverpool boss must demonstrate that he can operate at the top tier of the transfer market, because to date most of his 24 signings made as Reds manager have disappointed—with Daniel Sturridge and Philippe Coutinho the notable exceptions.

Rodgers has splashed a total of £214.4 million on signings as Liverpool boss, with £148.4 million of that spent on midfielders and strikers. Joe Allen, Fabio Borini, Iago Aspas and Balotelli have been particularly expensive disappointments for the Northern Irishman, and Lovren, Markovic and Lallana have hardly been much better.

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Liverpool originally planned to appoint a director of football alongside Rodgers, but abandoned that plan following the mixed success of Damien Comolli in a similar position with Kenny Dalglish. Given the Northern Irishman’s own patchy track record in the transfer market, that might not be a bad idea for the Anfield club, who cannot afford to fritter away more cash on mediocre players.

Nonetheless, reports—as per Rhys Turrell of the Daily Star—claim Rodgers will be handed another bumper budget for this summer’s transfer window, following the agreement of a new £300 million kit deal with New Balance and revenue from the Premier League’s lucrative television broadcast contract.

And with Steven Gerrard set to hand in his captain’s armband and leave Liverpool for MLS and the LA Galaxy at the end of the season, Rodgers is under pressure to restore some star power to his side. Jordan Henderson is taking on more responsibility with every game, but Rodgers could still do with a more consistently exceptional central midfield to make up for the loss of Gerrard in the way he didn’t with the sale of Suarez.

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“The model here at the football club is clear in terms of the owners want to bring in young players in order to develop and create them into world class players, which of course can be a longer and more difficult process,” explained Rodgers within days of the January transfer window opening, as per Ian Doyle of the Liverpool Echo.

“A large part of our squad is young players but there’s no doubt at times that if you want to take those steps forward, you need those ready-made players. It’s certainly something I know the owners look at. They know that not every player can be a developer. But as a football club you have got to look to find the next ones.”

Rodgers does indeed need to find the “next ones,” as he puts it. This time, though, he cannot afford another season of transition, as Liverpool have endured this term. The Reds cannot continue to assume that their season will turn around in the second half of the campaign, as it has done in the past two years.

At one point or another, Rodgers will be expected to lead a sustained title challenge, building on their surprise Premier League tilt in the 2013/14 season. The Liverpool boss is undoubtedly an exceptional coach, but imagine what he could do if he finally cracks the transfer market.