Transfer Travesty: How 'world-class' £16m Liverpool flop cost £14k-a-minute and £5.5m per goal. Negligence?

After weeks of speculation, Mario Balotelli is no longer a Liverpool player, but the good news is tempered by the fact that the Reds had to take a massive financial hit to get him off the books. Just how much did Balotelli actually cost Liverpool?

Every credible source (including the BBC) claims Balotelli cost £16m, and received a salary of £90k-a-week. As such, with those figures in mind, behold the staggering financial cost of a player Brendan Rodgers described as 'world-class':

Balotelli in Numbers

* 60 weeks as a Liverpool player

* £16m transfer fee

* £90k-a-week salary (£6.2m, including 10 months at Milan, with LFC subsidising wages @ £20k-a-week = £800k.

* £22.2m total cost (£16m fee plus salary)

* 28 appearances for Liverpool.

* 1600 minutes played (Average 57 mins per game).

* 4 goals/0 assists in 28 apps

* £5.5m cost-per-goal.

* £14k earned for every per minute of pitch time.

* £22.5m = Total loss to Liverpool

Ouch! This is a catastrophic financial loss for the club, and is similar to the £20m+ loss on Andy Carroll. Clearly, Liverpool learned nothing from the Carroll debacle, and the Balotelli transfer will inevitably go down as yet another example of staggering transfer negligence under FSG.