18 Dec 2012

Gross FSG negligence? 'Shocked' Aldo blasts LFC for 'baffling' financial 'problem'...

Anfield legend John Aldridge has slated Liverpool's ridiculously high outlay on Agent's fees over the last year.

A few weeks ago, Brendan Rodgers confirmed that FSG's plan over the last year had been to 'balance the books' at Anfield, but when it comes to Agent fees, the opposite seems to have occurred. Recently released figures reveal that:

* LFC Spent £8.6m on Agent fees between 1 October 2011 and 30 September 2012.

* This is an increase of £1.6m on the previous year's figure of £7m.

* The club outspent 18 other Premier League clubs, including Man United and Chelsea.
* Only Man City outspent Liverpool (with an outlay of £10.5m)

Speaking to the Liverpool Daily Post, Aldo was outraged by the massive outlay. He barked:

"I was shocked when I saw we were second and only champions Manchester City have spent more over the past 12 months. The fact we’ve paid out £8.6million really worries me. It’s been a problem at Liverpool for years with far too much money being wasted. How we have spent more than Manchester United and Chelsea on agents is just baffling"

It is indeed baffling. During that period, Liverpool signed only 5 players: Fabio Borini, Nuri Sahin, Joe Allen, Oussama Assaidi and Samed Yesil.

* Combined cost = £32m approx (including £2m estimate for Sahin's loan fee)
* Agent costs: £8.6m
* Average Agent cost per player = £1.7m
* Agent cost as % of total cost = 27%

Compare this to the previous year (1 October 2010-3 September 2011)

* 9 players bought. Total transfer spend = £131m (Accounts verified)
* £131m = 75% higher spend than 2011-12.
* Agent costs: £7m
* Average Agent cost per player: £777k
* Agent cost as % of total cost = 5.3%

So, in the space of year, Liverpool's Agent costs per player increased by almost 22%, despite the fact the club spent 75% less on transfers compared to the previous year.

How is that possible?

Clearly, based on the figures, the only conclusion can be gross negligence on the part of FSG/Ian Ayre. Somewhere in the process, the Reds have been completely fleeced by Agents, and it's arguably negligent because the club allowed it to happen. What makes it even more galling is that Manchester United's Agent fees for the same period only came to £3.6m (!)

The ultimate irony here is that FSG are allegedly all about 'balancing the books' this year, yet they still outspent 18 other Premier League clubs on Agent fees. It's hardly surprising though - this Agent fee fiasco is just the latest example of financial mismanagement under the club's American owners:

* In 2010, the club's wage bill was £121m. A year later - one year into FSG's stewardship - the wage bill had increased to £134m (accounts verified)

* FSG blindly handed out over £100m to Kenny Dalglish and Damien Comolli for transfers, with zero oversight as to how the money was spent. We all know what happened next.

FSG need to get their financial act together because, at the moment, the club is haemorrhaging money under their 'leadership'.

Jaimie Kanwar


77 comments:

  1. Doubt this is true.

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  2. What do you doubt? The factual, irrefutable figures that have been verified by the club's accounts? The Agent fee figure, which is also a fact? None of the figures in this article are guesswork; they are fact.

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  3. think a large portion would have gone on the sahin deal,loan deals always work out crap at lfc we loan players out we pay there wages we loan players in we pay there wages,but thats the lfc way

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  4. This is absolutely disgusting. How did we pay so much agent? It's not like the signings included some from Top 50 players list!

    I'm afraid that FSG were/are totally out of depth when it comes to football. Baseball is a more ludicrous game money wise, but they came where with a completely different frame of mind.

    Handing out £100+ to KD and Comolli was naive. Who in the world was advising them on this matters!!??

    Didn't they think why we were bidding for a player who did not suit our style & cost so much & very limited experience?

    I've always said that Ian Ayre is not the right person to be MD of the club.

    We need ship out Cole, Downing, Henderson (as improved but he is on 70K a week) and Andy Carroll and accept that we will have to take massive losses.

    The KD legacy continues.

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  5. True! I'm pretty sure we were paying Coles wages at Lille...I mean what's the point of that! Might as well have kept him around last season!

    The people that deal with contract negotiations need to get sacked!!!

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  6. jaimie says the agent fees are based on rodgers 5 signings so what the f"ck as it got to do with kenny,you cannot blame him for everything

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  7. FdotM is clearly referring to the transfers part of his post.

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  8. Seem new owner needed. I not sure BR will get enough funds for the transfer and also players that suit in Tiki-Taka style

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  9. errmm the club outspent 18 other clubs, rather than 19....there's only 20 in the league :)

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  10. No i'm just so shocked that I couldn't believe it. It's disastrous - Now, I'm a big supporter of FSG - they really pulled us out of the gutter, as i'm sure everyone would agree. They tried their best with the signings we did in jan 2011 and then in the summer. But they need to get a serious grasp out of football and hire someone better capable doing his job than Ian Ayre unfortunately. As long as they provide support for Rodgers and the boys, I will support them.

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  11. Do agent fees only occur when a transfer takes place or do we have to pay them for contract negotiations, too?

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  12. Yeah, you're right. My mistake. Fixed.

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  13. Total shambles. FSG clearly out of their depth in the world of football. Need to stick to what they know - baseball???
    We appear to have owners who haven't got a clue who to hire to run the Club and advise them.
    So what have we got then????
    Clueless owners, clueless advisors and executives, clueless scouting system, clueless manager, clueless players.
    It doesn't get any better than this - lol.

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  14. The figures are wrong,check again,you state "Yet they still outspent 19 other Premiership clubs on agent fees",Last time I checked there were 20 Premiership clubs.take us and Man City out of that equation. You should have typed "Yet they still outspent 18 other Premiership clubs on agent fees"......Don't thank me just doing my job.....:-)

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  15. Six long long months to find the players (yes goalscorers) we need if this turns out to be not enough Brendon can get lost. THE TWO PLAYERS MENTIONED ARE A JOKE SURELY. six months wait for a player who can get into a struggling Chlelsea side and one we sold 12 months ago ???.

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  16. The only business in the world were the owners and managers publicly reduce their assets - madness, yes "Carroll wont be back" clever that - Downing is another, stupidity.

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  17. Why has Brendons little favorite Suso not been publicly ticked off and fined by the club and made to apogigise disgraceful behaviour ??. Erikson is a must buy.

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  18. Why is Texiera being messed about ??? He is much better than Suso.

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  19. You forgot to add clueless fans.

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  20. Guys did you hear that Suso got fined 10K for homophobia on Twitter? By jokingly calling Enrique Ga* for whitening this teeth?

    What do u think?

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  21. Feel the same way bud. Ian Ayre is Rick Parry is disguise.

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  22. Under Comoli he done 26 deals in total... know wonder the fee's are insane you donut Kanwar.

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  23. I think it's a joke, but he shouldn't have made that comment public.

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  24. He looks a very good player when playing against other boys. So do Morgan and Yesil, who both have looked a few years short of being ready for the first team. Don't know what's wrong with playing a player in the first team when he's ready instead of pushing him in when he's not. You may think about Rodgers whatever you want, but he surely gives youth a chance.

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  25. You are forgetting we resigned players to improved contracts

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  26. I suggest you read things properly before posting irrelevant stuff. The £8.6m in fees has nothing to do with Comolli. LFC made no signings between 1 October 2011 and April 2012, when Comolli got sacked.

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  27. more political correctness the worlds gone mad

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  28. I really fear for Liverpool ..in any commercial business cash is king and we are hemorrhaging it and it doesn't look like its gonna end any time soon......the club needs experienced operators.....and we have Rodgers and ayre...AKA laurel and hardy...if you read this post Jaimie i see you like anecdotes well heres one for Liverpool's management ..if it looks like sh%t and it tastes like SH%t and it smells like Sh%t IT IS SH%T YNWA

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  29. or sack the player its not as if were ever going to recieve a payment for cole and if we do it probabley would not cover the wages we spent on him whilst he was at lille,in every other wakk of life if you dont perform in your job your out

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  30. If you think about it we are the ideal club to sell to....we pay over the odds ....and then we can loan you the player back and pay his wages.....so you end up with a transfer fee plus the players wages paid for free....

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  31. Theres a big problem everytime people talk about fsg spending, you must realize that if torres stayed here they would never spend the 50m that came from chelsea so you cant say fsg spent more than 100m here because half of them were torres money NOT fsg s money, suarez and carroll were bought by those money, so fsg invested only on adam downing and henderson enrique,thats 52m fsg own money, thats it not over 100m.

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  32. Hi Jason, I meant in terms of that Carroll, Hendo and Downing were/are KD overpriced flops. Of course Cole was not a KD signing and I didn't say it was, I simply said he needed to be shipped out.

    So in a sense those flops are still KDs legacy which BR has not option but to have momentarily until he can ship them out.

    Carroll was shipped out without a replacement being ready 100% so in the sense your are right about BR legacy...he flopped on this one.

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  33. We can't sack him unless they breached their contract. If they didn't breach their contract and still sack him then we would have to pay which would be a lot of compensation money so it's not viable.

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  34. Sadly, the gross negligence claim could be used for most of the past two decades :(

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  35. lol clubs must think its xmas when we enquire about there players i bet the swansea board had a right old knees up when we asked about allen,

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  36. not about right or wrong but rodgers sends out mixed messages about players all the time i,ve never known a player come out and say hes free to leave on a friday then the same manager gives him a starting place on a saturday whats that say to the rest of the players who did not start,

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  37. Wat u don't seem to add is the players we have sold! Agents do a lot of groundwork for clubs trying to sell players completely out of favour who don't seem to have any interest from other clubs, such as kyrgiakos to worlfsburg, Joe Cole to lille on loan, poulsen to evian, you've reported a story and not delivered the full facts! I agree that the money paid is ridiculous and coulda been used toward bringing someone else in

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  38. he did breach his contract he lied on his cv he said he could play football

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  39. 52m plus the 26m on borini and allen 78m is not to be sneezed at...that coulpled with paying cole ...the eastern European yokovich or whatever means in a nutshell we have spent a lot of money on a lot of crap

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  40. Comment of the day haha! Brilliant! Its true though.

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  41. True! I think he may be trying to put them on the shopping window!

    BR has lost my confidence in terms of his "guarantees".

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  42. we would have a strong case for sacking most of the squad Lol ....at 90 g a week im afraid coles going no where unless we pay his wages

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  43. I have a plan to help us out:

    Bring Cheyrou, Diao, Partridge, Biscan, Traore and Morientes as coaching stuff!

    And buy (regardless if they are retired or not) : Junior Agogo, Titus Bramble, Djemba Djemba, Ade Akinbiyi,Tomas Brolin ,Massimo Taibi and Ali Dia!

    And of course...Souness as Manager.

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  44. Yep, beyond the Manchester clubs and Chelsea, we have spent quite bit of money. Last season, our wage bill was more than double Newcastle's!

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  45. We got about 80 million back off players sold !!! and Texiera will be worth 20 million next season.

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  46. Texiera is a certainty to be a star - I have not been wrong yet re LFC youngsters. Morgan needs time as goes Yesil, this lad has class and age wont matter.

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  47. The gay remark was stupid - the cannot play football remark was even worse. just signed a contract ! big head maybe.

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  48. agree were stuck with him unless another club can be as stupid as ours but i wont hold my breath,its like you said before why buy him when we will give him you for free and pay his wages as well

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  49. Not denying that. Simply stated that I trust our manager and coaches to give him first team action when he's ready for it.

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  50. spot on jason...even downing has gone on record saying he cant fathom it out....slated in the papers for no heart...told he can leave the club..in the team on Saturday LOL you couldn't make it up.....and we have wisdom flannagan and co not getting a sniff ....heres an idea rodgers if you rate downing over the rest at Fb get rid of all the other fullbacks...it really beggars belief

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  51. just how bad are these players hendo and carroll went to the euros ...i really think they have been badly mismanaged by all parties ....i still think hendo is a far better player than allen( although that's not saying much ) and in the right system carroll would thrive....as for downing he showed his best form at center midfield at villa a position we have never played him....he cant be any worse than Allen or Gerrard at presant

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  52. i,ve got a really bad feeling about the situation at anfield its like gillet and hicks never left

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  53. alas if you tell a player he can go and tell the world as well all it those is push the transfer value down

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  54. thats if we don't let him go first ....sheer fluke that sterling got a chance this year don't quote me but we where looking to loan him ...Ince never got a look and left...and rodgers prefers downing at fullback rather than the plethora of good fullbacks we have at the club...and suso and seems to have fell out of favor for a naive remark ...and we swapped a promising winger who will face us saturady for konchesky ...and before anyone pipes in i know some are not down to rogers ...but it still doesn't bode well.

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  55. TEIXEIRA looks very good from what I've seen.I think he'll be the next player to make the transition from the U21's to the first team.Him along with IBE and possibly SINCLAIR means the production line after SUSO and STERLING shows no signs of slowing down.

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  56. I don't think the remark SUSO made about ENRIQUE has anything to do with his lack of game time recently.For me it's a case of BR wanting him to improve on the pitch.
    His attacking play is fantastic but some teams or players in the PL would be better suited to playing rugby.Football goes out the window.
    Sometimes he looks a little lightweight and maybe a player with his ability should be demanding the ball or be more determined to be involved in play.I'm hopeful that with experience these details will be ironed out.
    I think he'll come good because with time his body will fill out and he'll be stronger and better equipt to handle the physical UFC nature that some teams bring to the PL.

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  57. most of your points can be aimed at sterling and allen but they have played 20 plus.....just a thought ...also with when playing chicken tika is size an issue

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  58. maybe rafa will sign him again as he didn t get the chance to work with him

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  59. were just mugs nowa days run by cowboys (again)

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  60. have u ever been in a dressing room? its just normal banter that goes on.

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  61. our club was reported to the fa for racisism cos a sub who was asian never got on in the under 10 s. but his twin brother played. and the fact that is was a cup game and he wasnt very good do u replace a better player with him? well his mother seemed to think so . this pc world is fu"kin nuts

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  62. Yes, I have, and I agree with you that it was normal banter, but given the sometimes over-the-top political correctness nowadays and all sorts of pressure groups he shouldn't have made that comment public.

    Anyway, the words we usually exchange in the dressing room don't go public. That's the big difference. If they would, some of the lads would be into deep shit to be honest.

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  63. Think Ian Ayre is a very good example for a promotion that's gone wrong. He was a fine commercial director, but isn't suited to his current position.

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  64. We also renegotiated a few big contracts and I believe agents are involved in that too. What I don't understand is why we pay agent fees at all. A player wants an agent to handle his business so let him pay for it out of his pocket.

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  65. agree mate . the only people who start bangin the drum are these p c nutcases. we have gay pride .gay village .so what is all the all the fuss about if hes called his mate gay big fuckin deal .and if hes been fined for it thats a fu"kin joke .and the next time i see brenden rodgers ill scratch his fuckin eyes out !xxxxxxx

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  66. It wasn't Rodgers who fined Suso, mind. No need to scratch his eyes out.

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  67. Jaimie, an increase from 5.3% to 27% in not a 22% increase, it is a 500.09% increase.

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  68. You forgot eric meijer, paul koncehesky & christian poulsen mate

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  69. woo lets not even go there,not the old race card

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  70. FSG should stick to 'rounders' and leave football to the men. What is it with the Yanks? Are they trying to get revenge? Wasn't the Boston Tea Party enough for them?

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  71. just learnt it was the fa who fined suso .what a joke for a bit of banter .they should be lookin at gettin these referees to act on all the shirt pulling and holdin in the box iits gettin like bloody rugby than lookin at tweeter.

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  72. Eric i agree, any qualified professional should not need agent (lobbyist) to find him work.

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  73. Playing time:hoping he stays fit and improves.He did'nt,we are stuck with him.Rridiculous!!

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  74. Don"t worry,if he"s out of contract in smmer he will be here in MSL.Where he will flourish.

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  75. Said it before and I will say it again, its not how much money we spend, but how we have spent it. We have mainly wasted cash for 20 years, with the odd good signing. The wage fees though will have come down this year, as when I worked it out we shaved about 18mil off our wage bill in the summer.

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  76. Remember that most professional footballers are not the brightest folks around. They may need an agent to read out the contracts for them.

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