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Liverpool spent big this summer, is it a one-off, or have they joined the clubs that they used to complain about?
You either die a hero or live long enough to become a villain. Have Liverpool finally succumbed to the dark ways of the Premier League and joined those that they used to detest?
With a total spend of £442m it’s hard to argue against such a severe change in tact even if the net spend of £235m aligns more accurately with the sort of spending plan that was initially imagined. The big name departures of Darwin Nunez to Saudi Arabia and Luis Diaz to Bayern Munich helped the bank balance, however, fringe players Jarell Quansah and Harvey Elliott have also made a sizeable dent in the summer’s outlay.
Have Liverpool joined the Premier League big spenders?
Liverpool didn’t need to have the overhaul that they did with the squad but were well prepared and had an answer for every scenario that was presented. There were no panic buys or players kept who don’t want to stay and, for all the money that was spent, it is hard to argue against any of it being wasted.
The average age of the squad has decreased and yet every new addition has either played over 100 Premier League/Bundesliga games or is an established international player. As with the most consistent title winning XI, there is no reason why a core of 7/8 players can’t still be at the club in five years time.
It hasn’t been an overspend of player who have just done well in an international tournament or who were off the back of one good season in the Premier League with every player looking the perfect fit for the style of play that Arne Slot likes to implement. It has clearly been a long term plan and why Slot’s first two transfer windows were eerily quiet. He arrived from Feyenoord knowing that a plan was in place. That he won the league without spending money only saw his stock as a coach rise.
Are Liverpool the new Man City?
When asked by Jim White on Talksport if Liverpool were heading in a new big spending direction, Simon Jordan was quick to jump to the champion’s defence: “PSR governance has changed, it’s also changed because Liverpool are now at a stage where their turnover is so significant. Liverpool’s turnover in the season before last was 620 million quid.
“The season just gone it’s probably going to be exceeding 700 million quid. And because the playing field (with Man City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Man Utd) has been levelled, the argument that Jurgen Klopp played was that the playing field wasn’t level because we all know what Man City can do, they can decide to just spend more on players.
“Well, there was an element of well, that’s not quite right, that’s not quite right what he said there, but Liverpool have simply consolidated and conflated two transfer windows, two summer transfer windows into one and paid some slightly higher fees than people anticipated because they’ve bought some of the best players.”
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