Liverpool - We Are the New Leeds

Filed in archive Premier League '09/'10 on September 24, 2009

As reds fans waved a banner at Tuesday night's Carling Cup meeting between old rivals Leeds and Liverpool at Elland Road, what exactly has driven them to come out with such a damning proclamation?

Released today was the news that Rafa Benitez, who is in his sixth season as Liverpool manager, will find it almost impossible to keep up with Europe's biggest clubs and his main rivals in the Premier League (including new-money Manchester City). The club's American owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, will impose a £20 million spending cap on the manager, an amount which includes wage increases, making it almost impossible for him to develop his team from the outside.

Liverpool finally received some good news last week when a deal was completed with new shirt sponsors Standard Charter, after the government in the UK put a ban on alcohol advertising in the sport. This ruled out any future with Carlsberg, who along with Chang beer of Everton are the only brewery sponsors left in the Premier League. With the need to look elsewhere, though, the club got lucky, and have found a deal which increases sponsorship revenue for the next four seasons by £80 million.

Benitez' bosses promised the manager that he would be given more money to spend in the summer transfer window just closed. Then he was promised the freedom to sign big names for big prices next summer. What will no doubt be grating on him, then, is that it doesn't take an accountant to work out where the £20 million spending cap is coming from. His owners are still unable to actually provide him with any more money, effectively telling him that his maximum will be the new revenues each year from Standard Charter.

Having worked to a profit this year and left his team severely depleted, with only the signing of Glen Johnson seeming to be his saving grace at the moment, any momentum that was picked up by the club in last season's title race looks certain to be lost. If the team are to sign another Fernando Torres (pictured), the manager would need financial stability. You can be sure the fans will not allow this to be the end of the issue...