Liverpool's boss is taking big hits to push Kop flops through the exit in quest to build his own empire

For lovers of symbolism and Liverpool, the afternoon of May 13, 2012 was an interesting day. It was Kenny Dalglish’s last game in charge of Liverpool and Brendan Rodgers’ final match at Swansea City.
That Sunday at the Liberty Stadium, Liverpool rounded off their poor 2011-12 season with a 1-0 defeat.
Stewart Downing was poor, Jordan Henderson was largely ineffective and Andy Carroll was taken on and beaten by a dribble from Michel Vorm, a goalkeeper who cost £1.5million and would now go for far more.

Ruthless: Brendan Rodgers has gradually ushered out the over-priced players who came to symbolise the regime of his predecessor, Kenny Dalglish, including Andy Carroll (below left). Stewart Downing (below right) may also leave

 

It was a metaphor of sorts for Liverpool’s season, rounded off by Dalglish’s minor tantrum in the post-match press conference when asked about his future. It was strangely poetic that as it turned out Rodgers had landed the last haymaker.

Now one of the last remnants of that Dalglish dynasty, Downing, is understood to be considering an option to join Newcastle. Rodgers is building an empire of his own at Liverpool and the expensive recruits of Dalglish’s second reign are going, one by one.

Andy Carroll and Charlie Adam went for a combined loss of £23m. Should Downing also leave, the reported fee of £5m for a £20m winger-turned-left back would take those losses of the Dalglish-Damien Comolli era to around £38m.

Expensive taste: Liverpool will lose £38m selling Kenny Dalglish and Damien Comolli's signings

And why should I keep you? Jordan Henderson could be another one sold by Rodgers

Gone: Charlie Adam was sold to Stoke City for a loss after just one season at Anfield

BRENDAN'S BUYS

Rodgers' signings since becoming Liverpool manager...

Summer 2012

Fabio Borini (£10.5m from Roma)
Joe Allen (£15m from Swansea)
Oussama Assaidi (£3m from Heerenveen)
Samed Yesil (£1m from Bayer Leverkusen)
January 2013
Daniel Sturridge (£12m from Chelsea)
Philippe Coutinho (£8.5m from Inter Milan)

Summer 2013

Kolo Toure (Free from Manchester City)
Luis Alberto (£6.8m from Sevilla)
Iago Aspas (£7.5m from Celta Vigo)
Simon Mignolet (£9m from Sunderland)

Understandably, the Fenway Sports Group who own Liverpool were reluctant to immediately hand the next manager the same sort of money. But there is no doubt that in 14 months Rodgers has established his employers' trust and increased control over playing affairs.

Last summer, he didn’t make any great effort to conceal how he felt about the collapse of a move for Clint Dempsey. Fulham had quoted Liverpool £6m after reportedly offering him for £4m to others. FSG refused to sanction to extra cash and Rodgers didn’t get his man.

But, with the possible exceptions of missing out on Gylfi Sigurdsson last summer and Henrikh Mkhitaryan this year, little else has gone wrong.

He spent nearly £50m last summer, including £15m on pass master Joe Allen, and this time round has been backed to develop the squad as he sees fit.

The level of trust from FSG seems to be increasing all the time, not least because since Comolli’s departure last year Rodgers, along with head of recruitment Dave Fallows and head of analysis Michael Edwards, is part of a three-man committee that rules on transfers.

In the case of Mkhitaryan, whom Rodgers desperately wanted, FSG were convinced to spend upwards of £20m, before he opted for Borussia Dortmund.

And the board were happy to sanction his move for goalkeeper Simon Mignolet, even though it spelled the end for Pepe Reina, a favourite among the fans. His signings of Luis Alberto and Kolo Toure could yet look extremely shrewd and Iago Aspas was wanted by several clubs.

Missed targets: Clint Dempsey, who has joined Seattle Sounders in the MLS (above), and Gylfi Sigurdsson (below) didn't join Liverpool despite being on Rodgers' shortlist

Not enough: Liverpool were prepared to bid £20m for Shakhtar's Henrikh Mkhitaryan, but he opted to join Borussia Dortmund

Swansea’s failure to sign him was one of the key reasons behind Michael Laudrup’s rift with the club this summer.

Going the other way in the past year have been 18 players, from Reina to Craig Bellamy to Alberto Aquilani to Jonjo Shelvey, a midfielder in whom there was so much hope.

The net loss of transfers in building the Rodgers’ empire is reportedly close to £50m. That will change if Luis Suarez gets his way.

Irrespective of that particular saga, for now results are a more important barometer of whether the trust was justified. Rodgers has been allowed to build an empire and now he must prove he has done a better job than his predecessor.

On his way: Goalkeeper Pepe Reina has joined Napoli, with Belgian Simon Mignolet brought in