In 2017, Paris Saint-Germain had shocked the entire planet by slamming € 400 million to tear Neymar from FC Barcelona and Kylian Mbappé at AS Monaco (ready with a purchase option of € 180 million). Eight years later, Liverpool did better. This summer, the Reds spent almost € 500 million to afford Alexander Isak (€ 145 million), the most expensive recruit in the history of the Premier League, Florian Wirtz (€ 125 million), Hugo Ekitike (€ 95 million), Milos Kerkez (€ 47 million), Jeremie Froimong (€ 40 M) and Giovanni Leoni (€ 31 million).
Long -term investments
A stratospheric amount that has been a lot of chatting, even if it should be remembered that the Mersey club has XXL financial capacities and has sold for almost € 220 million. The balance remains in deficit (-263 M €), but in these cases, everyone often thinks only of the staggering amount spent. And approaching the € 500 million mark, Liverpool made an impression. Has the champion of England crushed the competition by spending in a summer what Manchester City or Chelsea never dared to do? Indked in the position of sports director of the Reds, a year ago, Richard Hughes spoke for the first time since his arrival on the banks of the Mersey on the occasion of the IMG X Redbird Summit.
And here is how he justified the crazy sums spent by the 2019 European champion, and more particularly the € 145 million for an Alexander Isak not really having big references, especially on the European scene. “This is really what we hope (a long -term investment, note), and by buying a young player, you give yourself the means to achieve it. We also want to try to win now, and it is just as important, so I do not describe them as projects in progress or anything like this. These are players who have already done a lot in their individual career. We are talking about Florian and Alex, but Milos, Jérémie and Hugo are players who have already reached a certain level in the game. ”
“You have to disregard as much as possible of the probable amount of the transfer”
Then, to explain the decision to spend nearly € 500 million, Hughes simply explained that Liverpool had not focused on … the value of its targets. Everything is just a question of good profile. “You have to disregard as much as possible of the likely amount of the transfer. Above all, it is very important to identify the right player for the right system and the right coach, and I think it is not necessarily a novelty for the football club and its owners ”he said, in remarks relayed by The Athleticbefore continuing.
“If you look at what was paid for Alisson Becker (€ 72.5 million in July 2018) and Virgil Van Dijk (€ 84.65 million in January 2018) in history and you compare this to what it would represent in 2025, you are not far from some of the amounts that were spent this summer. We pay what we believe to be the fair market value of a player according to his age and the need to integrate it into the team. With hindsight, we hope that instead of talking today about the enormous amount of these transfers, we will be able to say in the future that the club has had its money. And given the age of the players we bought, we are convinced that this will be the case ”. The future will tell us if Liverpool was right. Or not.
