Jurgen Klopp's BIGGEST failure HURTS Arne Slot's Liverpool future

The fundamental aim of every season is to secure Champions League qualification by finishing in the top four.

In the 2022/23 campaign, Liverpool came up short, finishing the season in fifth place after a perturbed season where they dropped points in exactly half of their 38 Premier League games. They subsequently had to feature in the Europa League for the following season.

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While this was disappointing for fans and players, the feeling was one of positivity. It was a chance to finally complete the set by winning the competition under Jurgen Klopp, which they narrowly failed to do in the 2015/16 season, losing to Sevilla in the final.

However, the team came up short once again, this time losing in the quarter-finals against the would-be-winners Atalanta.

Liverpool finished the 2023/24 campaign by also falling short in the Premier League title race with Arsenal and Manchester City, but the Reds' comfortable third-place finish meant that Champions League football would be returning to Anfield.

Now, in a recent report from OffThePitch, the impact of Liverpool's brief absence from the Champions League has been revealed and the financial picture really isn't a pretty sight.

The Europa League ripple effect

In light of the extraordinary popularity of the Champions League in comparison to UEFA's second-tier European competition, Liverpool lost a substantial amount of prize money.

Having generated over €80 million in the 2022/23 season, Liverpool took home just €27.1 million in 2023/24 for their European endeavours, a staggering loss.

The €52.9million disparity represents an overall decline of 17.6 per cent in broadcast revenue.

For the fans, the Europa League campaign, in addition to the club's success in domestic competitions, led to five more home games, and the opportunity to see the Reds play was greater than in other seasons gone by.

This led to a 12 per cent boost in matchday income, which rose from €91.7million to €103.1million.

And away from the field, the club's commercial revenue rose by three per cent to €322.8million - almost half of the overall forecasted turnover of €654.7million.

However, that figure would still represent a four per cent decrease in the previous season's turnover, by €28.2million.

Moving forward

In the end, Liverpool managed to rectify their mistake and qualify for this season's Champions League. As a result, the finances will inevitably look more favourable next season when the accounts come back.

However, the situation that the club is dealing with for the time being is a stark one.

The wage bill sits at €437.4m, a projected increase from last season, and the club's owners Fenway Sports Group (FSG) still have a fair few fires to put out before they can relax.

The contracts of Mohamed Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Virgil Van Dijk remain unresolved, and if Liverpool want to keep any of them, never mind all three, then the expenses are set to skyrocket once again.

Salah is currently on £350,000 a week and, should he extend his stay on Merseyside, that figure is more than likely to increase than decrease. Likewise, Trent is in the prime of his career - he'll expect to be right up alongside the club's top earners.

Player amortisation costs are also lingering in the background, after the additions of Alexis Mac Allister, Ryan Gravenberch, Dominik Szoboszlai and Wataru Endo - which are currently costing Liverpool €35.8million.

Any future additions are likely to require the club to sell off some of its assets and this could either be through releasing one of the uncontracted players or a different star talent that Arne Slot would likely want to keep hold of.

The situation is not great, to say the least. But with Champions League football back at the club, there are at least some positives to move forward with.

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