Brendan Rodgers has revealed his ambitions of strengthening the Liverpool squad this summer. Paul Ellis / AFP
Brendan Rodgers has revealed his ambitions of strengthening the Liverpool squad this summer. Paul Ellis / AFP

Sport

Revamping the Liverpool squad and addressing Daniel Sturridge’s injuries, Brendan Rodgers set for busy off-season

Shopping for new players, solving Daniel Sturridge's injury problems and getting Liverpool back in the Champions League, Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers is expecting a busy close season.

Reuters

May 01, 2015

Shopping for new players, solving Daniel Sturridge’s injury problems and getting Liverpool back in the Champions League, Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers is expecting a busy close season.

His team finished Premier League runners up last season but despite investing heavily after Luis Suarez’s departure to Barcelona, they have struggled to build on their success and are lying fifth in the table with four games left.

“Come the end of the season you look to improve the squad,” Rodgers told a news conference on Friday.

“What I’ve said is we have been short of goals this season, but that’s not the strikers, it’s the whole team.

“Wide players, midfielders, defenders. These are areas we want to improve on. I knew 100 per cent the model here. We have a real good team of people here. We have to look at it and see how we can improve our squad again.”

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Next on Rodgers’ to-do list is trying to find a long-term solution to Sturridge’s fitness problems.

The 25-year-old has been sidelined by hip and thigh injuries and has only played 18 games in this campaign, scoring five goals, compared to 33 appearances last season and 24 goals.

“We have found some underlying issues that have related to the problems he’s had,” Rodgers said. “We are just doing everything we possibly can to get him fit.

“Daniel wants to play and be available. This has been a season that he wanted to build on. He has had issues throughout his career but we wanted to give him the chance when he came here to be one of the best in Europe.”

Liverpool trail fourth-placed Manchester United by seven points and Rodgers admits Champions League qualification could be out of reach.

Queens Park Rangers travel to Anfield on Saturday in desperate need of victory to boost their survival chances as they are four points behind 17th-placed Leicester City.

“This isn’t a team lacking effort or commitment. They will fight right to the end,” Rodgers said.

“We won 10 out of 13 and confidence was high. In couple of big games we fell short and that can dent your confidence.

“It will be a tough game against QPR. (Charlie) Austin and (Bobby) Zamora are a real handful. We totally respect them and their fight.”

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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”