Whichever way it was presented, the 2022/23 season was one of bitter disappointment for Liverpool.
From being within touching distance of what would have been an unprecedented quadruple 12 months previous, the Reds had to settle for a fifth placed finish and Europa League football, an exit in the first knockout phase of the Champions League and fourth round exits in both the FA Cup and Carabao Cup.
There have been some assertions made as to why the season that has just come to a close saw the levels drop so sharply, with a fatigued, ageing squad in need of a revamp being one of the more popular. A perceived lack of investment over a prolonged period in the transfer market from owners Fenway Sports Group was seen as another issue that had come to a head, where the parts of the machine hadn’t been changed as often, or as well as some of their rivals.
Analysis from football finance expert Swiss Ramble has looked at the competitive performance of clubs in the Premier League last season relevant to the money that they spend on both wages and the amortisation figures in the accounts, which are the way that football clubs cost transfers over the length of a contract, regardless of whether or not a deal has been paid up front or in instalments.
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For the most recently published 2021/22 financial year, Liverpool’s payroll was the second highest among Premier League clubs at £366m. It was a figure somewhat inflated by bonus payments made to the squad following success on the pitch, while a large number of new contract extensions were inked during the reporting period.
Swiss Ramble looked at a number of metrics to determine performance against budget. For the Reds, their wage spend per point for the 2022/23 season, a campaign where they achieved 67 points, the spend per point during the campaign when it came to wages was £5.5m, the second highest in the Premier League with only Chelsea, who suffered a dismal campaign that resulted in a 12th placed finish, seeing a higher figure at £7.7m. The rest of the five highest wages in relation to points gained were relegated Leicester City(£5.4m), Manchester United (£4.1m) and bottom of the table Southampton (£4.5m). Brentford got the biggest value for money, spending £1.2m per point in relation to their wage bill as the Bees finished a creditable ninth.
Wages per position had Liverpool as the sixth worst in terms of value for money, spending £23m. The five teams to perform worse were Chelsea (£38m), Everton (£41m), Leicester City (£61m), Leeds United (£61m) and Southampton (£113m). Using the metric, Brentford were once again top of the pile in terms of performance in relation to payroll as their figure came out at £6m. Liverpool were three places worse off than where the size of their wage bill ranked them at the start of the season, with Chelsea the worst performers of the so-called ‘big six’ with eight places between them and where the wage bill ranked them among their Premier League rivals.
Perhaps the most telling metric was the wages plus player amortisation metric that was analysed, a combination which gives the annual cost of squad investment and is what UEFA have used to form the basis of their recently introduced new financial sustainability regulations that have replaced the old Financial Fair Play rules.
Adding together both wages and the annual amortisation figure detailed in club accounts, which in Liverpool’s case was the fifth highest in the Premier League at £103m per the most recent accounting year, saw the Reds have a combined annual squad investment figure of £469m. That figure was the fourth highest in the league behind Manchester City (£495m), Chelsea (£501m) and Manchester United (£533m).
In terms of wages and amortisation per point, Liverpool were the fourth worst performers, spending £7m. Beneath them were Manchester United (£7.1m), Leicester City (£7.5m) and Chelsea (£11.4m).
With regards to wages plus amortisation per league position, Liverpool featured 14th with £29m spent in relation to where they finished, with the worst performers being the bottom four of Everton (58m), Leicester City (£85m), Leeds United (£89m) and Southampton (£149m). In terms of league position against spend, Liverpool were one place behind where their squad investment cost placed them in comparison to their Premier League rivals.
The 2022/23 season was a campaign where the Reds posted their lowest full-season points total under boss Jurgen Klopp and had a wage bill some £50m higher than the previous accounting year. That wage bill will be reduced when the next set of accounts for the year ending May 2023 are published early next year, and with the signings being made at present, such as Alexis Mac Allister, to fall into the 2023/24 financial year it will likely be a better performance from the Reds in terms of getting value for money when the same analysis arrives this time next year, provided that the Reds can right the wrongs of the campaign just concluded and challenge for the biggest prizes once more following a season where they went very much off the boil for the most part.
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