Mo Chatra

Football finance. @AnfieldIndex regular (inc. Money Talks). Former wrestling writer & Wrestling Channel presenter. Views mine.

[Mo Chatra @MoChatra]

Liverpool's 'summer of madness' is delighting its fans in equal proportion to upsetting rival supporters. Once the Ekitike deal is concluded, transfer fee outlay will hit £260m- with further expensive incomings expected. This thread explains how the club is financing it.

[Mo Chatra @MoChatra]

@SamiHenchoz Will look to produce a thread on this over the next several days.

[Mo Chatra @MoChatra]

For those asking why Cody Gakpo and Ryan Gravenberch were signed to contracts paying guaranteed wages north of £250k per week during 25/26, bear in mind both players will have earned comfortably north of £200k per week (including bonuses) before the renewals.

[Mo Chatra @MoChatra]

@gmac72_LFC @syed_lfc110 Spot on.

[Mo Chatra @MoChatra]

Once again, Liverpool has thrown various journalists' credibility under the bus.

Decision to dispense with Slot would have been made quite some time ago. Yet club fed pack of lies to the journalists (i.e. that Slot would stay), with many gullibly reporting it.

[Mo Chatra @MoChatra]

@tonymc39 The pressure is immense, sure, but many/most fans see a lot of these writers as mere extensions of the club's comms department. That can't be good for generating clicks.

Access is important, but it can't come at the expense of credibility.

[Mo Chatra @MoChatra]

@sven5801 They didn't need to say anything. Just keep quiet.

Instead, it was unprompted near-daily briefings from the club.

[Mo Chatra @MoChatra]

Some went further, to gaslight fans.

The end result is damaged credibility for many of the patch journos.

Embarrassing all around.

Journalists, grow a backbone and do better.

[Mo Chatra @MoChatra]

@kennymc1ntosh Tickets last time saw huge price drops in the last several weeks leading up to the 2024 event.

I think many fans - myself included - are expecting the same to happen this time around and therefore holding out longer.

I can see it topping 40k.

[Mo Chatra @MoChatra]

@Vegas_Analytics True, but he was also earning a lot more than was being reported too.

[Mo Chatra @MoChatra]

Part of the issue Liverpool has is their wage bill is really high- and a significant driver behind that is the bonus structure.

The club's attempts to bring it under control lost Liverpool Diaz last summer and Konate this summer.

[James Pearce @JamesPearceLFC]

Ibrahima Konate is set to leave Liverpool when his contract expires at the end of June.
Just too big a gap between the financial package the French defender wanted to stay at Anfield and what #LFC were willing to pay.

https://t.co/oKRL2XmHdQ

[Mo Chatra @MoChatra]

@FavLFC What happens is the basic wages are reported rather than estimates for what the players could make with bonuses factored in. To be fair, that's pretty typical amongst clubs, but Liverpool's bonus structure is more generous than most.

[Mo Chatra @MoChatra]

@Corballyred Only the Chief Exec- his remuneration is published annually in the accounts.

Other senior directors (e.g. Hughes, Beacham, Bamber) will be on hundreds of thousands or low seven figures- but nobody else's earnings are publicly available.

[Mo Chatra @MoChatra]

@PhillipMPope @costas_kolatsis Bonuses for appearances, goals, assists, clean sheets, UCL qualification- things like that. They're not just paid if teams win trophies.

[Mo Chatra @MoChatra]

@MrLiverpool_19 Probably in the £750m region.

[Mo Chatra @MoChatra]

@costas_kolatsis The bonus structure is overly generous and it means a core of about 15-16 players earn incredible amounts of money. Bonuses are paid even if success isn't forthcoming.

[Mo Chatra @MoChatra]

@IanNarine I agree, that incentivised contracts are a good thing- but ours were overly incentivised to the extent our wage bill is too high. Furthermore, we still struggled to move on players we normally longer wanted even with those types of contracts.

[Mo Chatra @MoChatra]

I also think Gakpo was renewed because the club probably intended to sell him this summer for a large fee and replaced by one of those pacy wingers Slot craves- until Ekitike suffered his injury.

[Mo Chatra @MoChatra]

I suspect they were offered larger base contracts (including the loyalty bonus) but reduced levels of performance-related bonuses- so the overall cost increase won't be as significant as many might believe.

[Mo Chatra @MoChatra]

@KieranMaguire Congratulations, Kieran.. Thoroughly well deserved.

Will probably provide more pun material for Kevin, mind!

[Mo Chatra @MoChatra]

@FrankieByrne9 Higher than everyone- officially.

City are different because many of their staff are charged to the parent City Football Group. If City's full staffing costs were attributed to the club, they would be highest.