The extent of the financial constraints on Brendan Rodgers at Liverpool was laid bare on Friday night as the club's owners, Fenway Sports Group, failed to agree a deal with Fulham for Clint Dempsey. The collapse of the United States international's proposed move to Anfield leaves Liverpool with only two senior forwards – Luis Suárez and Fabio Borini – until the transfer window reopens in January.

In another day of wage reductions at Anfield, Rodgers released three more players – Charlie Adam, Jay Spearing and Nathan Eccleston – but that was not enough for his employers to meet Fulham's demands for a minimum £5m fee for Dempsey. Fulham claim Liverpool offered only £3m for the American, who became the second Rodgers' target this summer to sign instead for Tottenham Hotspur following Gylfi Sigurdsson.

Fenway Sports Group had misgivings over paying a substantial fee for a 29-year-old despite Dempsey, who scored 23 goals last season, doing his utmost to force a move to Merseyside. He had informed Aston Villa, who agreed a £5m plus add-ons transfer with Fulham, that he wished to join only Liverpool.

A proposed move to cover the departure of Andy Carroll with the loan signing of Daniel Sturridge also collapsed when the Chelsea striker insisted on leaving Stamford Bridge on a permanent basis. Rodgers had revived his interest in the former Manchester City forward when Chelsea dropped their demands for a £15m transfer and became open to a loan deal, but Sturridge's stance ended Liverpool's pursuit.

Rodgers removed approximately £8m from Liverpool's wage bill in the final 24 hours of the transfer window and raised a further £4m from the sale of Adam to Stoke City plus loan fees. The sum would have been higher but proposed loan deals for Daniel Pacheco to join Real Valladolid and Danny Wilson to Blackpool did not go through. Blackpool did sign Eccleston on loan while Spearing moved to Bolton Wanderers for the remainder of the season.

The Liverpool manager had conceded there was an element of risk in allowing Carroll to join West Ham United on loan without having a replacement secured but did not envisage the decision back-firing so spectacularly. "I've been given as much confidence as I can possibly get that we will have someone to come in," he said in the wake of Carroll's exit on Thursday night.

On Friday afternoon Rodgers was confident of signing "one or two to reinforce the group" but also warned; "Does it [the departures] free up a lot of money for me to bring in other players? Probably not. We need to work on the finances at the moment."

The Northern Irishman had a deal for Dempsey lined up all summer – the Liverpool chairman, Tom Werner, said in May that "any team would be lucky to have Clint Dempsey playing on their squad" – but even with the American pushing for a move to Anfield the club were unable to complete a deal.

Rodgers had to explain his reasoning for wanting Dempsey at the club to Liverpool's owners in a phone-call following the aggregate defeat of Hearts in the Europa League play-off on Thursday. A proposed exchange deal involving Jordan Henderson was also mooted only for the Liverpool midfielder to reject a move to Craven Cottage.

The Liverpool manager was handed a transfer budget of £20m plus monies raised through player sales when he replaced Kenny Dalglish in June. That went on the signings of Borini, Joe Allen, Oussama Assaidi and the 18-year-old striker Samed Yesil, while Nuri Sahin also arrived on loan from Real Madrid.

At Everton David Moyes completed a £2m deal for Copenhagen's Bryan Oviedo and also signed the 17-year-old Kilmarnock winger Matthew Kennedy. The 22-year-old Oviedo, a Costa Rica international who can operate at left-back and left midfield, was granted a work permit at a hearing in London on Friday morning attended by Moyes and the Everton chairman, Bill Kenwright. The Everton manager also wanted to strengthen in central midfield but was unable to conclude deals for Steven Nzonzi of Blackburn Rovers or an ambitious attempt to sign Michael Essien from Chelsea.