Liverpool Transfer News: Dalglish's Summer Clearance Outlines Club's Grand Vision

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Liverpool rounded out a prolific transfer window on Wednesday with the capture of Craig Bellamy from Manchester City, but the club also delivered on their second target for deadline day, offloading a further two players from the wage bill before the 11pm deadline.

Kenny Dalglish and Damien Comolli have overseen the sales of 19 squad members since the transfer window opened all the way back in June. The final two, Raul Meireles and Philipp Degen were sold in the final half hour of business on Wednesday evening.

Predictably, the sale of Meireles grabbed the headlines in Thursday's press. Not only was the Portugal international not on the club's list of players to sell this summer but Chelsea acquired the gifted midfielder for a reported £12m, a shade over the £11.8m Roy Hodgson paid Porto for the player last summer.

Astute business by Roman Abramovich? Possibly, but when taken in the wider context of FSG's transfer strategy at the club, not altogether surprising.

Few Liverpool fans would have welcomed the sale of Meireles, who was the PFA Fans' Player of the Year for 2010, but it became clear over the summer that, with the additions of Jordan Henderson and Charlie Adam, the Portugal international didn't feature in Dalglish's long-term plan at Anfield.

As Rory Smith notes in the Telegraph, "that is the measure of the new Liverpool...young energetic, mostly home-grown, and with a passion for the club."

The real measure of the club's success in the transfer market comes when the other 17 players who have departed are taken into account.

On Wednesday's deadline day the club shifted Joe Cole, Christian Poulsen, David Ngog and Degen, as well as Meireles, with around £30m taken off the club's wage bill, and a further £20m raised in transfer funds.

The previous two regimes have been all but erased from history. As Smith notes, only Brad Jones and Danny Wilson remain of Hodgson's signings, and only three of the 14 bought by Rafael Benitez in his final two years at the club.

Liverpool's business also involved looking ahead to next summer. As part of Joe Cole's loan agreement with Lille, enquiries were made over the Belgium international Eden Hazard. Both Cole and Alberto Aquilani, who departed for AC Milan on a season-long loan, have been given the chance to resurrect their careers in clubs at Champions League prospects this season, with Liverpool confident of reclaiming their position at Europe's top table next season.

Comolli, the Liverpool director of football, has lavished praise on the club's owners for their "brave" approach to the transfer window.

"It's difficult for me to put into words what they gave us throughout the summer," Comolli is quoted in the Daily Mail. "Their support was absolutely tremendous, in the down times and in the up times.

"When they needed to invest money we didn't think they'd have to, John [Henry] and Tom [Werner] were unbelievably helpful. I think we are very lucky to have these owners because people need to realise a lot of owners would have said the squad if too big so you need to reduce it, and then when you've done that bring some players in.

"But that was never the approach they had. They were happy to take risks, for us to spend the money, to support us and to trust us as well."