The chief executive of Liverpool Ian Ayre has praised the club’s ability to attract to players despite the lack of Champions League football.
Liverpool secured the signing of Nathaniel Clyne earlier this week for £10 million; he became the Reds’ sixth signing of the summer.
James Milner and Adam Bogdan joined on free transfers and Liverpool will have to pay a small compensation fee to Burnley for the signing of Danny Ings.
After them, Joe Gomez arrived from Charlton Athletic in a deal worth to be in the region of £3.5 million and Roberto Firmino joined for an initial £21 million potentially rising to £29 million.
So far, the spending has not reached the heights of last summer’s expenditure.
Ayre, who is actively involved in transfer negotiations, spoke glowingly of Fenway Sports Group’s (FSG) transfer policy and described it as ‘smart and sustainable’ in an interview with the League Managers’ Association magazine ‘The Manager’.
“I stood on the Kop for many years as a fan, and like everyone else I’d love to buy all the greatest players, regardless of price,” said Ayre.
“But, as we saw under the club’s previous ownership, things can all go very wrong financially; then people will hold you accountable for not running the club in the right way.
“You can’t work that way. You have to have a very detailed, thought-out plan and ensure everyone buys into it and adheres to it.
“That is what we have been doing and will continue to do.
“It doesn’t mean we are not investing in or buying good players; we are just doing it in a smart and sustainable way.
“We may not be competing in the Champions League this year but we are still making progress as a club and continuing to add quality to our squad.
“We are also improving financially, which means that as we go forward with the plan we will have more resources and will be able to invest more than we have in the past.”
Ayre went on to speak about manager Brendan Rodgers’ cooperation with the FSG policy:
“If your manager doesn’t understand your long-term plan it will never work, because he’s in charge of the biggest cost item – the players.
“Brendan is very much a team person, he understands budgets and the financial implications of bringing in certain players, and he is very easy to get on with.”
