Dalglish Promises Not To Blow £50m On 'Greedy' Players

Kenny Dalglish has been told he can splash the cash by Liverpool’s owners – but he has warned he will not be held to ransom by greedy players.

Sunday Mirror Sport understands that Fenway Sport Group are ready to invest more than £50million in strengthening a Liverpool squad that has been resurgent since Dalglish replaced Roy Hodgson as manager in January.

They have also told the Scot that his budget will be swelled by any player sales, with Dalglish himself admitting that there will be departures from Anfield.

But the Kop boss has rubbished suggestions that Liverpool will have to pay over the odds for top players with no Champions League football on offer next season.

Liverpool can qualify for the Europa League by beating Tottenham at Anfield today, and Dalglsh said: “I don’t want to stand here and say how much we will have to spend or whether we are going after this player or that player.

“I want to give the players that are here the utmost respect for their efforts this season, but there will be people leaving and people coming in because that’s the nature of a football club.

“What I will say is that the owners have been fully supportive. They want the club to be successful and if we don’t have the players here to do that then we need to go and find somebody else.

“At the same time, if somebody is too greedy then they won’t be coming here.

“People are entitled to their own opinion (about the effect of not being in the Champions League).

“We are confident that we will get players if we want them.

“If they don’t want to come here for the right reasons then we won’t take them anyway. It’s as simple and as straightforward as that.”

Dalglish spent £58million bringing in Andy Carroll and Luiz Suarez to the club in January but recouped most of the cash by selling Fernando Torres to Chelsea for £50million.

Ten wins and three draws in 16 matches have seen Liverpool sour up the table into fifth place – and convinced owner John Henry to hand the Anfield legend a three-year contract.

But Dalglish is aware that Liverpool’s resurgence has simply papered over the cracks in inherited.

He said: “I don’t think we will be quiet during the summer and although we can all look forward to next season we also have to remain realistic.

“We won’t buy players if they are not the right calibre. We will keep our money in our pockets.

“Anybody that is coming in here will need to better than the ones here, but that is a big ask and that ireduces your options every time.

“I hope my coming back doesn’t frighten anyone away!

“As I’ve said, we will do our best quietly and efficiently and hopefully to the same quality and integrity as we have done our recent business.”

When Sir Alex Ferguson took over at Manchester United in November 1986 he immediately set his sights on knocking Liverpool off their perch.

He has done that by winning 12 titles in 19 seasons, but while privately Dalglish will be burning with the desire to return the compliment he is too wise to become embroiled in mind games with his fellow Glaswegian.

Dalglish added: “We set our own standards here, but we have to get up to speed with the people who are better than us.

“How do you judge they are better? The league position.

“I think we have beaten three of the top four and that is the standard we have to reach if we want to be successful.

“We have to get to the level that the successful teams are playing at.”