Money, not history, entices talent

THE additional cost of failing to achieve Champions League football received its very own price tag this week: £14,301,464. This is what it took to persuade players to come to Liverpool last season. There were a lot of them, too, obviously. Liverpool sold Luis Suarez and bought in bulk but, even so, it was the largest sum spent on agents’ fees by any club in the Premier League. Manchester United were near the top, too, and Manchester City and Chelsea, so a certain level of expenditure also comes from shopping at the elite end of the market. City must continue selling their growing club as a project, while the mention of Manchester United tends to add a million or two to the going rate. After the debacle around Angel di Maria and Radamel Falcao, every agent knows they’ve got it. Yet Liverpool’s expenditure is telling. They were not in the same expense band as the others and were — their policy states — buying potential, players who could grow into superstars under the tutelage of Brendan Rodgers. Adam Lallana, Lazar Markovic, Dejan Lovren. Yet it still cost more than £14m — £4m more than the fee for Emre Can, £2m more than went on Alberto Moreno. This is the hidden cost of being outside UEFA’s elite competition. These days there is a charge for a player to go a year without Champions League football. That is why Yaya Toure’s wages at Manchester City were astronomical and why Manchester United were paying through the nose the summer after David Moyes left. London clubs have a lifestyle attraction, too, which Liverpool hope to counter with a marquee name like Jurgen Klopp. Considering the return on the investment, Liverpool’s expenditure appears wasteful; but it really wasn’t their fault. In the modern climate, for a provincial club outside the Champions League, they simply paid the going rate. History counts for very little these days.