Ian Ayre vows that Liverpool will keep spending

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CEO Ian Ayre has promised that Liverpool will maintain competitive in the transfer market, providing we maintain a ‘smart and sensible’ approach.

So far this summer, Ayre has overseen Roberto Firmino’s £29m arrival, Nathaniel Clyne’s £12.5m signing and further transfers for James Milner, Adam Bogdan, Joe Gomez and Danny Ings.

But providing we don’t make the mistakes that saw us almost go under during the dreaded Hicks and Gillett reign, Ayre thinks we’ll continue to progress.

“I stood on the Kop for many years as a fan, and like everyone else I’d love to buy all the greatest players, regardless of price,” he told the League Managers’ Association magazine The Manager, reported here in the Echo.

“But, as we saw under the club’s previous ownership, things can all go very wrong financially; then people will hold you accountable for not running the club in the right way.

“You can’t work that way. You have to have a very detailed, thought-out plan and ensure everyone buys into it and adheres to it.

“That is what we have been doing and will continue to do.

It doesn’t mean we are not investing in or buying good players; we are just doing it in a smart and sustainable way.

“We may not be competing in the Champions League this year but we are still making progress as a club and continuing to add quality to our squad.

“We are also improving financially, which means that as we go forward with the plan we will have more resources and will be able to invest more than we have in the past.”

Some Liverpool fans have been frustrated at our perceived inability to target the very best players on the market, but the Roberto Firmino deal will perhaps silence the doubters.

Ayre also made sure to praise Brendan Rodgers, who along with himself and four others, makes up our transfer committee which draws up targets and then tries to bring them in during windows.

Really, only Coutinho and Daniel Sturridge can be deemed complete successes since Rodgers took over though, and even Sturridge’s injury problems bring into question the forward’s long-term future.

“If your manager doesn’t understand your long-term plan it will never work, because he’s in charge of the biggest cost item – the players,” Ayre said.

“Brendan is very much a team person, he understands budgets and the financial implications of bringing in certain players, and he is very easy to get on with.

“That always helps gel a team together, because it means you can spend time together socially and professionally and discuss things in a relaxed way.”

“We needed a plan and a group of people who were committed to it and who would work together to achieve it.

“This ownership and management team is strong and united.

“There are no egos, we are honest with one another and I know I have their full support.

“I have direct and open lines of communication with the owners at all times and we make and stand or fall by decisions as a group.

“The unity that we achieved is exactly what Liverpool needed to move forward.”

It’s uncertain as to who we’re going to sign before now and end of the transfer window, but the Echo report in which we took these quotes predict that Christian Benteke is a likely arrival.

A forward is needed, but so is a central midfielder – and it would be great for us to splash some proper money on one of those as well.