Liverpool's owners have one more crack

FSG have regrets about spending £300 million on a once-dominant club but the talk is of one more season to re-establish the club in Europe's elite.Up until a day ago when the long knives that will send shivers through those on the Anfield payroll appeared, Liverpool's owners had been conspicuous by their inaction this season.They looked on from Boston while the Luis Suarez-Patrice Evra affair decimated a string of reputations, allowed the January window to slam shut without scribbling any cheques and showed scant sign of addressing the complex stadium issue.The impression was of inertia. Disinterest, even. There were whispers in City circles that a club which only changed hands 18 months ago was once again for sale.But with a demonstration of muscle-flexing that was both brutal and decisive, two senior employees were dispensed with on Thursday (there are rumours that more could follow), including the headline sacking of Damien Comolli, who had arrived on Merseyside to a fanfare that he failed to live up to.With a short but revelatory interview, chairman Tom Werner signalled that Fenway Sports Group (FSG) has temporarily swept aside its misgivings about ever realising the money-making potential of a once-dominant club to have another crack at gatecrashing Europe's elite.Kenny Dalglish's job is safe for now. “We’ve got great confidence in Kenny,” Werner said. “We feel the team is going to make strides in the future and he enjoys our full support.” Managing director Ian Ayre has been told he can also sleep easily, for the simple reason he helps make the club money. Fat shirt sponsorship and kit manufacturer deals are proof of that.From a distance, the timing of Comolli’s sacking – two days before Liverpool’s biggest game of the season, an FA Cup semi-final against Everton at Wembley - is odd. But it gives the Frenchman’s replacement the maximum time and resources to prepare for the opening of the transfer window in seven weeks times.FSG has determined it will not deviate from its director of football model despite its acceptance that Comolli was not the right man for the role.A shortlist for his replacement is yet to be drawn up but the early names in the frame read like a continental hall of fame – Dutch eminence grises Johan Cruyff and Louis van Gaal, and former Barcelona deal-maker Txiki Begiristain, who has been sounded out by Manchester City about a similar role. Crucially, all three are available.Given Comolli’s failure to find value in the transfer market, with Newcastle United and Aston Villa extracting £55 million for two second-tier England internationals in Andy Carroll and Stewart Downing, the onus will be on the new man to source untapped talents and drive a hard bargain.It is understood that FSG are prepared to stay at the helm for another year in a bid to jump on to the gravy train that is the Champions League.The club’s powerbrokers assumed it would be relatively easy to re-establish Liverpool as a regular top-four team and there is talk of regret in Boston at buying the club for £300m 18 months ago with one eye on how Uefa’s financial fair play rules would squeeze the excesses of Manchester City and Chelsea.Nevertheless, Thursday’s decisiveness demonstrates a shift in emphasis. Intriguingly, Werner gave a broad hint that Dalglish and the incoming director of football will be presented with funds to right the wrongs of the disastrous summer 2011 window.Agents across the globe will have been rubbing their hands in glee at the chairman’s claim that: “I would say we certainly have the resources to compete with anybody in football”. Given the £200,000-a-week salaries being sanctioned in China, Russia and, far closer to home, the two Manchester clubs, that is quite a boast.Despite the sums forked out on Andy Carroll, Stewart Downing, Luis Suarez, Jordan Henderson, Charlie Adam and company, the net spend of FSG is actually surprisingly low.In the three transfer windows since the Americans’ takeover, £114m has been spent on senior players but £77m of that has been recouped through sales, chiefly those of Fernando Torres, Ryan Babel, Raul Meireles and David Ngog. The annual wage bill has remained around £120m.It would require some considerable airbrushing of history to paint FSG as generous owners idly chucking around pound notes. Benevolent, no. Ruthless, certainly. The cold steel in Comolli’s back is proof of that.