Money is unquestionably a big factor. In Ox's case he makes around £6.24m per year - we're not just going to bring a mid in and not register Ox in the squad when his annual salary is enough to pay someone else the £120k-per-week he makes or the compensation fee to buy a young talent. It sets a bad precedent. When he leaves his squad spot will be taken by someone else - one-in, one-out - staff at the club will never admit it but we will likely have been hoping that someone would come in and bid for him so we could swap him out sooner rather than later - no such bid has arrived and if we accept a bid on the final day of the window then we might be unable to replace him.
The financial regulations coming in to replace FFP (allegedly these will be enforced more strictly but only time will tell) are something to keep an eye on as well. To quote some of it -
"The biggest innovation in the new regulations will be the introduction of a squad cost rule to bring better cost control in relation to player wages and transfer costs. The regulation limits spending on wages, transfers, and agent fees to 70 per cent of club revenue. Assessments will be performed on a timely basis and breaches will result in pre-defined financial penalties and sporting measures. The new regulations will come into force in June 2022"
- the takeaway there for me is the "limit spending on wages, transfers and agent fees" when it comes to that 70% limit - our wages alone represent a BIG percentage of revenue - I think we are up at around 59% on that score but would need to check.
Gomez has a renewed deal, Salah a bumper new deal, Jota a wage increase - these will have topped things up a bit - all requiring money on agents as well - where we are known to spend more than most. The figures are less of a worry on transfers as although we have brought in Carvalho, Núñez, Ramsay and Diaz in recent times we have sold Mane, Minamino and Origi to help balance things. Those 4 signings will have have required agents though, which again is worth factoring in - I think we spent £120m in agent fees between 2017-2020 if anyone wants to guesstimate what we may be spending there at the moment.
The Anfield Road End has had £80m committed to it so we can increase our revenue. This will help us generate further revenue going forward to meet targets.
Any transfer fee/agent negotiation/wages for Bellingham(?) and any other lads that may arrive will further increase that percentage of revenue too - so it does make sense to allow certain lads to leave - Ox will be one, Milner likely another.
Lastly, we must remember we have a bonus-based payment structure - so far as I know there isn't a visible breakdown of how those bonuses work that's accessible to the public, but I am sure that reaching Finals (and winning two) gave the players a generous wage top-up, as I'm sure goals, assists and clean sheets do for the relevant players.
It's frustrating when we have become used to Man City circumnavigating the rules to financially dope their squad, but personally I wouldn't want to replicate them in any way - winning would feel so hollow. Whilst we might begrudge the current "missing piece of the jigsaw" that is an extra top-quality midfielder, I think a bit of perspective to see that the jigsaw is almost complete to begin with is a pretty good thing - plenty of squads out there have multiple pieces missing - we on the other hand are bloody close.
Bookmarks