Liverpool’s wage bill has reportedly increased by 25% and has touched £200 million mark for the first time. The Reds shelled out £208,258,000 on salaries for players and staff for the 12 months up to May 31 2016 – more than Premier League rivals Manchester City (£198m) and Arsenal (£195m).
This represents a steep increase on the previous year’s wage bill where it was £166,085,000. The details were included in the club’s accounts, which have now been filed at Companies House.
Liverpool bought 9 players during that period including Roberto Firmino, James Milner, Christian Benteke, Danny Ings, Nathaniel Clyne and Marko Grujic. They also appointed manager Jurgen Klopp and his backroom staff, as well as giving professional contracts to a dozen Academy players.
The sharp increase in the wage bill contributed to Liverpool’s pre-tax loss of almost £20million during a year when revenue increased by £3.9million to £301.8m.
The total number of staff employed by Liverpool climbed from 636 to 700 from June 2015 to May 2016. Of those 500 are in ‘administration, commercial and other’ with 139 ‘players, managers and coaches’ and 61 ‘ground and maintenance staff’.
During this time, Liverpool also reached the league cup final and the Europa League final last season.
The fact that the wage bill has touched £200million for the first time shows that the club are showing great intent in taking Liverpool back to glory days. It was a smart move to appoint Jurgen Klopp and his backroom staff after the sacking of Brendan Rodgers. Klopp has so far carried out the job of rebuilding the club’s prestigious image pretty well and a lot more can be expected of him next season when he might even spend a little bit more.
Liverpool’s squad is still not a complete one. A lot of changes are required and the chances of Liverpool qualifying for Champions League looks highly likely. If the Reds qualify for Champions League next season, then depth in squad will be highly essential. Not even mere depth would be enough as the competition would demand depth in quality.
Thus, if Liverpool qualify for Champions League, then the wage bill will only go up as a result. It is a good sign that the club are spending money for all the right reasons. But one question that needs to be raised is that, ‘Are they spending it on the right players?’.
Clubs like Tottenham have seen their transfer policy fail miserably, after they spent huge amount of money to buy players and pay them. This summer, Liverpool’s signings have been really satisfactory and Sadio Mane has been a huge success.
Hence, the question raised above should not be a worry for the fans as Jurgen Klopp is a guy who knows how to get value for the amount of money spent.
