Ahead of the match: Liverpool’s finances not in the best of shape. « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News, supporting the club, the players and the manager

By Tony Attwood

With Arsenal not playing until Sunday Saturday afternoon took me to my local football ground – Corby Town.  They are in what we used to call the Conference North, now the Blue Square Bet North.  Either way it is 6th tier of English football.   The ground is 10 minutes from my home so it is a case of leaving 15 minutes before kick off and being back in the car to hear the results on the radio.

Today it was Corby Town 4 Bradford Park Avenue 5.  Quite a jolly affair unless you are an avid Corby supporter.  The crowd was 381, entrance fee £10, car parking free.  Being pro-Corby but no such much that a 4-5 home defeat hurts desperately I quite enjoyed matters from my seat in the grand stand on the half way line.  (Our local council built Corby a new ground 18 months ago – it is rather fine and the seats are very comfortable).

Corby also have a Vieira in their team – Avelino Vieira in fact, which makes me feel at home.  It is a fine ground for this level of football, but the team is lacking in its defence.  If I was a billionaire I think I’d start by giving them some money.

But I’m not, so back home, and contemplation of Sunday’s game.   Continuing a little on the theme from this morning’s piece, Liverpool remains an interesting club.  Liberated of their wealth by their previous owners (who I believe are still suing the club in the American courts for billions), and rescued from one sent of Americans by another set of Americans they find they are no longer a top four club.

And they have (or at least in the last set of accounts I saw, had) a big hole in their accounts.  Indeed the fact that Liverpool are in a spot of financial trouble seems to be a story that has passed by those fans who rather like the notion of rich financiers coming in and buying clubs.  The new ground is not happening, and the mega investment needed to buy lots of new players is not happening – and now it seems they can’t actually buy Clint Dempsey from Fulham for about £5m.  Dempsey is 29 but he scored 23 goals last season, so surely he must be worth something.

So they have (unless I have missed something, and if I have that would not be for the first time) Luis Suárez and Fabio Borini up front.   Of course there might be some others in the youth ranks who are ready to step up (maybe Samed Yesil is one such), and if there are others please let me know.  I’m not trying to take pot shots at Liverpool – I really am trying to follow the story.

Charlie Adam, Jay Spearing and Nathan Eccleston were sold and Carroll went to WHU on loan.   Borini, Joe Allen, Oussama Assaidi and Yesil,  came in while, as we all know, Nuri Sahin came on loan from Real Madrid rather than coming to Arsenal.  I suspect he took a look at who we have got in the mid-field and decided he’d not get many games.

So what are we to make of Liverpool’s financial situation?  The owners have said that the idea of a new ground is dead, which means their match day income stays where it is, below that of Arsenal match by match and without the boost of the Champions League money.   Their marketing income has historically been good because of their previous achievements in the league and Euro Cup, but each extra year without the Champs League reduces their standing both in a marketing sense and in their European co-efficient if they are to get back in.

Which leaves us all asking: how do Liverpool climb out of their financial muddle?   A year ago the owner said, “Our main goal is to qualify for the Champions League. If we don’t, it would be a major disappointment.”  So we can take it he is disappointed. A year ago Billy Hogan, managing director of the owning company said, “You’re seeing the desire to win and the desire to compete in the transfer market.”  So they bought Charlie Adam.  And sold him again.

Liverpool lost £49.3 million before tax in 2010/11, and I am not sure their buying and selling since those figures will have helped them much – especially since the last set of figures included £43 million from selling Fernando Torres and Javier Mascherano. On the other hand their wages were a ridiculous 70% of income, and that must surely have come down a bit.

Of course Liverpool have now written off all the money spent on the new stadium project so that should help them, but I am still not sure that the club has come out of the last two months of transfer activity very well.

We’ll see what they have in store for us on sunday.

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