Liverpool plan to axe high earners in order to fund summer transfers – report

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Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group (FSG) intend to sell of a number of high-earning players signed last summer, in order to fund Kenny Dalglish’s overhaul at Anfield, according to The Guardian.

The Merseyside club are currently being heavily linked with Sunderland midfielder Jordan Henderson, whilst they are expected to step up their pursuit of England and Aston Villa duo Stewart Downing and Ashley Young following Saturday’s Euro 2012 qualifier with Switzerland.

Club owner John W. Henry is keen to shift a number of high-earning players in order to make room for new additions, with Liverpool’s wage bill the fourth highest in 2010 in the Premier League, despite their failure to qualify for the Champions League.

Henry said recently: “The worst surprise following FSG’s takeover last October was the lack of depth in the squad. Our biggest concern in taking on this responsibility was this issue and it was a bigger issue than we feared. There was a huge multi-year payroll for a squad that had very little quality depth.”

Joe Cole and Milan Jovanovic, who both arrived at Anfield on Bosman transfers last summer, receive £100,000 and £120,000 a week respectively, although the Serb’s wages include a signing-on fee for the first 12 months of his contract, whilst £11.5 million was also spent on transfer fees for Paul Konchesky, Christian Poulsen and Brad Jones.

The future of Italian midfielder Alberto Aquilani is also still to be decided, with Liverpool set to pay the final £4.4m instalment of his transfer fee to Roma by the end of June, and Juventus having only offered £6m for the services of a player who cost £17.6m in total.

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