Brendan Rodgers has said Liverpool cannot afford big-money deals before Friday's transfer deadline unless Andy Carroll and other superfluous high-earners accept their Anfield careers are over.

The Liverpool manager wishes to sign Theo Walcott, despite Arsène Wenger's desire to hold on to the player, and has deals lined up for the remainder of this transfer window. Any permanent captures over the next 48 hours, however, rest on raising funds and reducing the wage bill from the existing squad, meaning one or more of Carroll, Charlie Adam, Joe Cole and Jay Spearing will have to go for Walcott or Fulham's Clint Dempsey to move to Merseyside.

Carroll's prospects of a return to Newcastle United are all but over, as Alan Pardew has confirmed, but West Ham United's offer of a £2m loan fee plus £17m should they avoid relegation this season remains on the table. West Ham are also prepared to pay Carroll's £80,000-a-week wage and could face competition from Aston Villa and Fulham. But the England international, as has been the case all summer, does not want to leave Liverpool for any of those three clubs and only a late change of heart will enable Rodgers to further his interest in Walcott, with whom he shares an agent. City may also move for the Arsenal winger depending on the outcome of Scott Sinclair's proposed transfer from Swansea.

Adam, who is reluctant to leave Anfield just 12-months into a four-year, £60,000-a-week contract, is considering an offer to join Stoke City, who are looking to off-load Wilson Palacios, on a permanent basis while Spearing is expected to leave on loan. Bolton and Wolverhampton Wanderers have held talks with Spearing. Liverpool have not received any official approaches for Cole, whose £100,000-a-week wage is unsurprisingly discouraging potential suitors.

Liverpool have again been linked with Daniel Sturridge but Rodgers, who is not planning a move for the Chelsea striker, admits the club are not in a position to make further signings outright after spending his budget on Fabio Borini, Joe Allen and Oussama Assaidi.

"No, not at this stage," he outlined. "I am aware of the links and it is great that those players want to come here but the reality is that we are not in a position to do deals like that. The club, in financial terms, is in need of repair so those players linked and for those sums linked, I don't have the ability to do that unfortunately. Certainly not in this transfer window anyway. That is the reality of it. Unfortunately it is going to take more than one window.

"The transition of the squad is probably going to take this window and through to next summer. This is an incredible club and so some players who come here, even if you want to move them on, are not going to just walk out of the door because of wages and other factors. It is going to take us a wee bit of time to build the squad that we want but, in the meantime, we just have to keep our heads down and work hard to get results."

Liverpool entertain Hearts in the second leg of the Europa League play-off on Thursday with Rodgers promising to field a stronger side than in the 1-0 win at Tynecastle last week. The Liverpool manager will be without Lucas Leiva for "two to three months" after receiving confirmation the influential midfielder tore a thigh muscle against Manchester City and has omitted Carroll, Adam and others as he pushes them towards the exit.

The manager added: "You don't need to be a rocket scientist to see that Andy has been a cover player for us. He has been excellent in terms of his attitude and his acceptance of where he is at but, for us as a football club, and I am talking generically here, I'm not sure we are in a position to have £35m players as third choice strikers or wingers who might be on £5m-£6m a year. I don't think the football club is in that position. This is the challenge that I have to work something but it is not going to be done overnight."

Liverpool (4-3-2-1, probable): Reina; Kelly, Carragher, Agger, José Enrique; Henderson, Gerrard, Allen; Downing, Borini; Suárez.

Hearts (4-2-3-1, probable): MacDonald; R McGowan, Zaliukas, Webster, Grainger; Barr, Taouil; Paterson, Templeton, Driver; Sutton.