Transfer Window Speculation

[Gethin]

5 minutes ago, Earl Hafler said:

Cardinal Richelieu

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You don’t drop them in at Old Trafford

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Rob Jones says hi.

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[Bogman]

Liverpool have enjoyed a Champions League cash bonanza – so will FSG start spending it?

Gregg Evans

Top of the Champions League table and into the last 16 with the most money banked.

This was the perfect return to Europe’s elite competition for Liverpool, setting up Arne Slot’s side for a crack at lifting the trophy for a seventh time and significantly boosting the club’s balance sheet.

After recording seven wins out of eight games, Liverpool are closing in on at least €100million (£83.8m; $104m) in Champions League prize money alone, with a further €56.5m still to play for. Factor in the additional matchday revenue that big fixtures at Anfield bring — the club earn between £3m and £4m for each home game, with sellout crowds as good as guaranteed — and the importance of being back in Europe’s premier competition after a year away becomes clear.

Slot will rightly focus on his side’s positive on-field performances, which included memorable victories against Real Madrid, Milan and Bayer Leverkusen, but the influx of such a large amount of cash will fuel the angst among the fans who want to see greater investment from Fenway Sports Group (FSG, the club’s owner).

Seeing that money flow in certainly makes it harder for FSG to stick so resolutely to its careful approach to spending. Such prudence could easily be justified last season, when Liverpool were playing in the Europa League while building the new Anfield Road End (which took capacity to over 60,000), but less so now.

Yet history suggests that more money coming into the club does not always equate to a big investment in the squad. FSG places sustainability at the heart of its operations and prefers to wait for the right player to become available, rather than being lured into overspending. An example came last summer with Real Sociedad midfielder Martin Zubimendi: he was Liverpool's top transfer target but, when that deal could not be done, they opted not to go for an alternative in his defensive midfield position.

There is no sign it will stretch the club beyond its means anytime soon, despite seeing the value of its asset multiply considerably since its £300m takeover in 2010.

Liverpool were the lowest spenders in last summer's transfer window, signing only Federico Chiesa for a deal worth up to £12.5m. A £29m deal for goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili was also agreed, although he stayed at Valencia until the end of this season, and with four days of the current transfer window remaining, Liverpool are yet to do any business.

Federico Chiesa was Liverpool's only summer arrival (Jan Kruger/Getty Images)

“People haven’t seen us do a lot in the transfer window but we’re happy with the squad," Slot told the BBC this week. "In the background, we are working on strengthening the squad for the summer. That would mean that for the upcoming years, we will be able to challenge for every trophy we are playing for.”

Key to the future are also the three soon-to-be out-of-contract players — Mohamed Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Virgil van Dijk — available to discuss free moves away this summer when their deals expire.

Salah, Alexander-Arnold and Van Dijk have been offered extensions but are yet to agree terms. Tension among the Anfield crowd continues to grow, with a recent banner reading, “Now give Mo his dough,” referencing the importance of FSG securing Salah beyond this season.

Of course such negotiations aren’t that simple. Neither is it as straightforward to suggest that now Liverpool are doing well in the Champions League again, they should break from a structure that, despite criticism, has served them well over the years.

There is still a little catching up to do, too. Liverpool dropped a place in the annual Deloitte Football Money League this year as the impact of no Champions League football last season was laid bare.

According to the figures, which are expected to be backed up when the club's official accounts are released, total revenue was up to around €714m, an increase on the previous season, which had stood at £594m. Much of that was down to a €45m increase in commercial revenue and a €29m boost to matchday revenue, helped by the opening of the new Anfield Road Stand.

A €42m drop in broadcast revenue, however, highlighted the missed opportunity in the Champions League and allowed Arsenal to leapfrog Liverpool in the standings.

That Liverpool are back in the competition and the favourites to win it, is a good start to the recovery. Never before has it been more important to be in the competition than now with the prize pot bubbling away.

Anfield makes huge sums for every home game (Carl Recine/Getty Images)

A 22 per cent increase in the money distributed from UEFA this year means that if Liverpool lift the trophy in May they can expect to earn around €160m. First they will have to progress through the last-16 against either Paris Saint-Germain, Benfica, Monaco or Brest. But even finishing as a runner-up or semi-finalist may be enough to record Liverpool's most profitable season in Europe, largely because of their early form and history in the competition.

As The Athletic's Phil Buckingham explained in more detail, the prize pot is split in three ways: first through an equal share (€18.62m for each club), then performance-related extras before a third part — a new 'value pillar' shaped by market pools and coefficients — completes the total.

We already know what some of these figures are in advance so they can be totted up along the way. Each win is worth €2.1m, with a draw bringing €700,000, then additional payments are made for the final league position, qualifying for the last 16 (€11m), the quarter-finals (€12.5m), the semi-finals (€15m) and the final (€18.5m).  The winners also get €6.5m, as well as an additional €4m for featuring in the following season's European Super Cup.

Liverpool's total for performance payments currently stands at almost €40m. The value pillar is the more complex of the three and relates to the size of each club’s domestic TV deal and historical performances in Europe. Liverpool were among the highest and are expected to bring in around €40million, which, added to their on-field performance, represents a good start to 2025.

The club's accountants will be thrilled, and Slot himself does not seem to be agitating for the kind of spending that some of his Premier League rivals are indulging in.

But given the sums pouring in, another quiet summer would lead to more awkward questions being asked of FSG and its long-term ambitions.

[Gethin]

6 minutes ago, Bogman said:

Liverpool have enjoyed a Champions League cash bonanza – so will FSG start spending it?

 

TL;DR: No