Wesley Sneijder was never a serious option for Liverpool

The news that Wesley Sneijder will be plying his trade for Galatasaray was met with disappointment from many Liverpool fans when then news broke on Sunday evening, and on the face of it, it is easy to understand their frustration.

Sneijder, a World Cup finalist, Champions League winner and one of the most respected creative players in the game, was available for the sum of around £6.5m, and with very little in the way to rival a bid, some fans thought it was no-brainer.

However, one didn’t have to delve too deeply into the complexities of the Reds’ financial situation to see why they took the stance they did on the player.

There is an old saying that form is temporary and class is permanent, and while some players make that statement ring true on a weekly basis, Sneijder has no form to use this reasoning with. The Inter playmaker has not featured for the Nerazzurri since September, despite being fully fit.

The former Real Madrid man will also turn 29 in June and at Inter, he reportedly earned an eye-watering £200k every seven days. To put that into context, Sneijder was earning in excess of £10m every year at the Italian club.

Liverpool have just sold Joe Cole to West Ham United in a desperate bid to remove his name from the club’s financial outgoings sheet, the Reds reportedly gave Cole a £3m ‘Golden handshake’ to make sure he moved and was no longer on the wage bill at Anfield.

Liverpool’s transfer policy under Brendan Rodgers has also seen the sales of other ageing high earners such as Dirk Kuyt, Maxi Rodriguez, Craig Bellamy and to a lesser extent Fabio Aurelio. It has been a focussed and concerted attempt to cut down an inflated wage bill.

Sneijder was viewed in the corridors of Anfield in the same regard as the former Anfield stars, and the Reds have made clear from the top to bottom of the club, their intention to target relatively cheap young talent rather than chasing older players with little sell-on value.

Managing Director Ian Ayre told the Liverpool Echo last week:

“Where a player is younger and talented with the right level of ability, we will always go for the younger option because it’s a better long term investment for the club to have someone who will be here a long time hopefully.”

The proof of that lies in Rodgers’ signings since he took over at the club last summer – the eldest signing was Oussama Assaidi, who celebrated his 24th birthday two days before he signed for the club. The rest are; Joe Allen (22), Samed Yesil (18), Daniel Sturridge (23), and Fabio Borini (21). Nuri Sahin – who had his loan deal cut short in an attempt to save on the percentage Liverpool were paying on his £115k-per-week wages – is 23.

Ayre however did concede that the transfer strategy was not “set in stone” and that if an older player was available who Rodgers thought could contribute, then those avenues would be explored.

Sneijder, for his part, is undoubtedly a class act and in 2010 he could quite justifiably have laid claim to being one of the top five players on the planet.

However in January 2013, the Reds do not feel at his at current level, with five months of stagnation at Inter, that he was worth the risk and have instead decided to proceed with trying to sign another creative talent at Inter in the shape of Philippe Coutinho.

The 20-year-old has been capped by Brazil and is viewed as a good option by Rodgers as he looks to bolster his attacking options.

The move sends out a clear statement of intent that the Reds are serious with their current transfer policy, and squad development as a whole.

Rodgers wants players who can adapt to his preferred formation of the fluid 4-3-3. The former Swansea City boss craves players who are versatile and can adapt to more than one position in a game, particularly in his front line and Coutinho is seen as the player who can do that.

Wesley Sneijder was seen as someone who could not.