Liverpool have already cut £300,000 a week off their wage bill with the departures of three senior players, and it is likely to drop further in the coming months.
The transfer window is now open and will be so until October 5, with the deadline running into the new season due to the delayed end of 2019/20.
While Liverpool are yet to make any additions to Jurgen Klopp‘s squad, and it appears there will be few made if the financial situation remains the same, the club have already been busy clearing out the first-team ranks.
Some of these occurred before the campaign finished, with Nathaniel Clyne and Pedro Chirivella among those to leave on the expiry of their contracts on July 1.
But after signing a short-term extension, Adam Lallana was also confirmed to have departed on Monday night, with the midfielder joining Brighton on a three-year deal.
Earlier that day, Dejan Lovren completed his permanent switch to Russian champions Zenit St Petersburg, banking Liverpool a fee of £10.9 million for a 31-year-old with two years left on his deal.
Perhaps more significant than the funds generated by Lovren’s sale, however, is the money effectively freed up by waving goodbye to three of the most high-profile signings from a productive association with Southampton.
Clyne only signed one contract during his time at Anfield, that being the one he agreed on making the £12.5 million switch from the south coast in 2015.
But it was a five-year deal earning him £90,000 a week, and given he played just 103 times for the club, with only 10 of those appearances coming in the last three seasons, it could be seen as a considerable drain on resources.
That put him in the mid-tier of Liverpool’s highest earners, similar to the likes of Gini Wijnaldum, Joe Gomez and Andy Robertson.
Both Lallana and Lovren agreed extensions to their contracts in 2017, earning an increased on the wages agreed when they both left St Mary’s three years earlier.
Brighton‘s new No. 14 was on £110,000 a week at Liverpool, while Lovren’s salary was a slightly more modest £100,000 a week—the Reds triggered an automatic one-year extension on his terms to force Zenit’s hand this month.
Losing Lallana, Lovren and Clyne in the space of a month cuts £300,000 from the club’s wage bill per week, with Chirivella’s exit increasing that even further.
The Spaniard is rumoured to have picked up around £12,000 a week while on Merseyside, which will have been higher than other academy players to depart such as Isaac Christie-Davies, Shamal George and Kai McKenzie-Lyle.
With Xherdan Shaqiri expected to be among those to leave later in the window, along with Loris Karius and possibly the likes of Marko Grujic, Harry Wilson and Divock Origi, the savings could be even higher.
What this could mean for Liverpool is that they are able to commit to another big-money signing, with the obvious example being Thiago Alcantara.
If the Reds were to agree a deal with Bayern Munich, Thiago would certainly command one of the highest figures on their wage bill, in line with Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino.
It could be, though, that the club put these funds towards new deals for Alisson and Virgil van Dijk, rewarding the pair for their transformative efforts at the back.
While those departing will be missed on Merseyside, it is part of the ongoing evolution of a squad Jurgen Klopp inherited back in 2015.
It could allow Liverpool more room to manoeuvre in the transfer market, or perhaps more fittingly, to help recover from the financial losses made due to the coronavirus pandemic.
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