King Kenny Dalglish has been splashing the cash this summer, but for Liverpool to be successful he needs to cast off some dead weight.
Too many players signed by previous managers Roy Hodgson and Rafa Benitez are sitting on the bench collecting huge wages for contributing very little. Here’s 5 players Liverpool will be actively seeking to shift from their wage bill- if they can find any takers.
Joe Cole
‘Anything Messi can do, Joe Cole can do too.’ Famous words from Steven Gerrard made this time last season.
Dalglish and Hodgson tried to give Cole as many opportunities as possible, many playing in Europe, and he failed to cut it. Red cards and missed penalties summed up a terrible start for a player rumoured to be on £100,000 a week. Wherein lies the problem. Who will sign Cole, even on a free transfer, and be willing to pay those sort of wages ?
The solution to Cole moving on lies with him. Only he can agree to drop his wage demands, but will he want to drop down a level, or give it one more season fighting it out at Liverpool ? A move back to hometown club West Ham could, however, appeal.
Transfer likeliness: 3/5
Milan Jovanovic
Is Jovanovic a terrible player ? As an international goalscorer logic would say ‘no’, but Liverpool fans will say ‘yes’. Is he worth £100,000 a week ? Nobody will agree to that one- except Roy Hodgson and Americans Hicks and Gillette, who sanctioned such a ludicrous deal a year ago.
The Serb’s time at Anfield has been unsuccessful, and like Ukranian Andriy Voronin before him, Liverpool should cut their losses. But like Cole, no club will pay Jovanovic the same amount, and the midfielder is stuck in limbo.
One option is for Liverpool to decide to negotiate and pay up to terminate his contract, but this will still cost millions.
Transfer likeliness: 2/5
Christian Poulsen
The Dane will ranks up there as one of the worst signings of last season, with even £4.5 million looking like a waste of money. He played just 12 games for Liverpool, and was even booed by fans for poor performances – a rare occurence for any new signing.
Despite getting back into the side initially under Dalglish, he barely featured after January and was kept out of the side by youth product Jay Spearing, who offered the side far more. With the arrival of Jordan Henderson and Charlie Adam, his playing time will be even further limited, and a move seems the only solution.
Liverpool can only hope former manager Roy Hodgson decides to do the player and the club a favour by bringing him to West Brom, otherwise a transfer to a foreign league is most likely.
Transfer likeliness: 4/5
Alberto Aquilani
Aquilani is not a bad player, but he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Benitez made a real error in spending the £20 million he had two summers ago on Aquilani, when a striker to partner Torres was most needed. It didn’t help either that Aquilani was barely fit, and his injury record at Roma gave a hint to that effect.
The ray of light is that when the Italian was fit, he played well, and actually contributed more assists at the end of the 2009-10 season than player of the year Gareth Bale did all of last season. Liverpool’s solution ? Ship him back to Italy on loan, hope he plays a blinder, and a club comes in with a mega-bid. Except it didn’t work out like that. He didn’t play badly, but he didn’t play well enough to warrant even £16 million, and now Juventus, who were interested, are refusing to pay as much as even £10 million.
So should Liverpool cut their losses, or take another chance on a player who seems to have regained fitness, and actually might prove to be quite good ? But don’t rule out a deadline day move.
Transfer likeliness: 3/5,
Paul Konchesky
From the Europa League Final, to playing for Nottingham Forest in a year. How Konchesky ended his spell at Anfield last season sums up one of the most disastrous moves of last summer. Credit again to Roy Hodgson.
For an accomplished full-back playing for Fulham to start making Sunday League level errors was unforgiveable, and the fans soon let him know that he was not up to standard. And that’s the fans who didn’t write him off as not being good enough before he arrived, which plenty did.
His popularity hit an all-time low when his mother hit the headlines for allegedly making derogatory comments about Scousers, and it was clear the left-back would move on. But nobody expected quite a dramatic fall from grace.
Now is the time for his agent to earn his money, by finding Konchesky a decent club. Again, he will have to take a wage cut, but that shouldn’t be a problem as he will be so desperate to get out of Anfield. Wolves made an enquiry two weeks ago, and nothing has happened since, but don’t be surprised to see the clubs come to an agreement before the season begins.
Transfer likeliness: 5/5
Image: © Sanjiva
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