Liverpool have spent almost £100m this summer, but it is far from the highest in the Premier League
Certainly, the need for change during the previous
disappointing campaign was made even more urgent by the expected departures of James Milner, Naby Keita, Roberto Firmino and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain on free transfers and the loanee’s return to parent club Juventus. Arturo Melo And compounded by the subsequent departures of Fabinho and Jordan Henderson to Saudi Arabia.
By then, Liverpool had already signed Alexis MacAllister from Brighton and Dominik Szoboszlain from RB Leipzig, with Wataru Endo later following from Stuttgart after failing to sign Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia. Ryan Gravenberch, who was a target during the transfer window, was finally snapped up by Bayern Munich just before last Friday’s deadline.
Assuming the add-ons go through,
Liverpool have invested £151 million in their four new midfielders. Never before has there been such a major squad change in a single transfer window,
although the collapse of strikers Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll in response to the sale of Fernando Torres in January 2011 still stands. the benchmark, as is the deal. goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek and Chris Kirkland on the same day in 2001.
Collected £52m from the sale of Fabinho and Henderson, the total net cost is just £100m. And that figure has only been exceeded once in the transfer window during FSG’s time at the club, with them spending £136m in balance in 2018.
This summer, Liverpool retained more than £142m from the sale of Phillipe Coutinho to Barcelona last January and spent more than £100m on a final midfield overhaul, with Fabinho and Naby Keita joining Xherdan Shaqiri’s attacking options. However, goalkeeper Alisson Becker was the biggest signing of the window, costing Roma £65m. Of course we all know what happened next, the new arrivals – like Virgil van Dijk earlier this year – helped Liverpool take the final step to reach Europe, then the world and finally after a 30-year wait. , England.
Klopp will no doubt be hoping this summer proves just as transformative, with the first four games showing early signs that Liverpool are capable of continuing their strong run from last season.
The latest transfer window continues the trend of FSG spending more and more money on acquisitions in recent years. The net cost increased in 2020/21. from £38m this year to £43m next season, £72m last campaign and £99m so far. The total net expenditure over the past six years was just over £350 million.
That the summer outlay has come at a time when Liverpool have missed out on Champions League riches for the first time in seven years – while bedding in yet another sporting director in Jorg Schmadtke – suggests there is an acceptance the Reds cannot afford to fail to qualify for a second successive year.
So, notwithstanding any late moves from the Saudi Pro League ahead of their transfer deadline on Thursday, how does Liverpool’s net spend this summer compare to their Premier League rivals?
Critics of FSG won’t be surprised to discover the Reds don’t even rank in the top seven. Chelsea lead the way as Todd Boehly continues to splash the cash with a net spend of around £165m, a significant distance ahead of Arsenal and then Manchester United. Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur and, unexpectedly, Bournemouth are next, all hovering slightly above the £100m mark.
Liverpool then narrowly edge out top four rivals Newcastle United. West Ham, Everton, Wolves and Brighton are the only clubs with a positive net spend.
In the five seasons since their last big season in 2018, Liverpool’s net spending totals around £220 million, well below the purse-string contenders.
Context, though, is everything. Manchester City and Liverpool were already building from a strong base – they were Premier League champions and European Cup holders respectively at the start of this period in June 2019 – and haven’t needed quite as much work on their squads as many of their rivals, at least until recently. Indeed, the lead spenders are all clubs who have been attempting to consistently bridge the gap to the duo.
But that Villa and West Ham are also high on the list underlines splashing the cash alone isn’t enough. Sometimes how it is used is as important as how the players are then used. However, it is clear that the bigger the funds, the more options there are.
However, Liverpool clearly had one approach in mind this summer.
“It’s not the biggest team in the world, that’s true, but we had to make a decision in our situation,” Klopp said last month. “Should we go for quantity or quality? The only option we really had was to go for quality.”
The Reds didn’t get all the players they wanted. Jude Bellingham was sidelined long before the transfer window opened, while Caicedo and Lavia left for Chelsea and defender Levi Colwill opted to stay at Stamford Bridge. And there is no doubt that the team would have benefited from another senior centre-back option.
