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Liverpool are preparing for life after Kenny Dalglish.

As the list of senior executives axed by the club’s American owners reaches six, with the imminent ­removal of legal adviser Nathalie Wignall, there is a growing belief inside Anfield that King Kenny’s days as manager are numbered.

John W Henry and Tom Werner, who head the Fenway Sports Group, will meet Dalglish once the final game of the season has been played at Swansea today.

Dalglish already knows that the owners are planning a change in direction regarding the club’s transfer policy.

They have spent £120million allowing Dalglish to recruit Andy Carroll, Stewart Downing, Jordan Henderson, Charlie Adam and Jose Enrique.

Now FSG want to target emerging talent. Although they are prepared to invest another £20million on new players this summer, they will want four young faces for that outlay.

On the brink

Kenny Dalglish has discovered over the past 16 months that even Liverpool legends can’t turn back the clock.

Fenway Sports Group’s decision to return King Kenny to the Anfield throne he had abdicated 20 years ago was hailed as a masterstroke by fans who needed new owners they could trust, after the ill-fated reign of Tom Hicks and George Gillett had torn the club apart.

Dalglish guided Liverpool to a first trophy in six years with a Carling Cup victory over Cardiff and led his team out for last week’s FA Cup final – but the most successful club in English ­football is now a mid-table side.

If the 18-times champions suffer a 14th defeat of the season at Swansea today, they will have lost as many Premier League games as they have won.

In the 50 years since Bill Shankly brought the club back to the top flight, they have never finished lower than the eighth position they currently ­occupy. And after backing Dalglish to the tune of £120 million in the transfer market, something is set to give.

Dalglish is less than 12 months into the three-year contract he signed last summer and there have been suggestions the owners will ask him to take on a new role as an Anfield figurehead.

(Image: John Powell / Getty)

FSG have already decided to cut the club’s ­budget for new recruits to around £20m this summer.

But whoever is in charge will be tasked with bringing in four players laced with potential.

The Americans believe it could take up to five years to build a team capable of closing the gap on the two Manchester clubs that currently stands at 34 points.

Director of football Damien Comolli has already paid the price in a cull that has claimed head of sports science Peter Bruckner, head of customer experience Jean Crisp and Steven Turner, the head of the club’s international soccer schools.

Last Friday, Ian Cotton, Liverpool’s respected head of communications for the past 16 years, was also removed from his post.

And Sunday Mirror Sport has learned that in-house legal counsel Nathalie Wignall is set to follow. John W Henry and Tom Werner, who head FSG, feel Dalglish must take some of the blame.

The 62-year-old Scot insisted when Comolli ­departed that the decisions to sign under-

performing players like Andy Carroll, Stewart Downing, Jordan Henderson, Charlie Adam and Jose Enrique were taken by him.

(Image: Reuters)

And recently he has admitted that giving Luis Suarez his unequivocal support during the ­Uruguayan striker’s race row with Patrice Evra was an error of judgment.

Dalglish, criticised for refusing to condemn his forward after the FA had handed down an eight-match ban for racially abusing Evra, was undermined completely when Suarez refused to shake the Manchester United captain’s hand at Old Trafford in February, despite assuring his manager he would.

Both Cotton and Wignall have paid for the Suarez debacle with their jobs .

Only last week, at the AGM of Liverpool’s shirt sponsors Standard Chartered, ­company chairman Sir John Peace was asked by shareholders to justify the £20million-a-year deal given Dalglish’s handling of the Suarez affair.

With Liverpool unable to cash in on Champions League qualification for a third successive year, the need for cash from commercial ventures is even more vital.

FSG fear that has been made harder by a manager who struggles with the demands of 24-hour-a-day media.

On Friday, Dalglish took part in a match between the club’s coaching staff and local journalists.

Even at 61, the man who graced Liverpool’s No.7 shirt cut an ­impressive ­figure on the pitch.

But time is ticking on how long Dalglish has left in the dug-out.