Liverpool fans were hoping for a mammoth transfer window as we look to build upon our Premier League success, though David Ornstein may have just popped the bubble.
Writing for The Athletic, the journalist was asked how much money he expects the Reds to be able to spend and said: ‘How long is a piece of string?!
‘There is, of course, money available at Liverpool this summer – largely because of the prudence shown a year ago.
‘But I think we should avoid from phrases like “war chest” because Liverpool have never spent crazily; as always, I suspect the priority will be quality – rather than size – of outlay.
‘Don’t forget the extensions of Salah and Van Dijk come at a significant cost and there may be others to follow, like Konate if an agreement can be reached.
‘There is a lot to do, in and out, and Liverpool’s finances are in decent shape.
‘But the focus will inevitably be to trade intelligently, as opposed to lavishly.’
A busy summer and a high spending summer may not be the same thing and it seems likely that Arne Slot has highlighted as many players he wants to leave the club, as those to join.
Liverpool may not spend big but will have a busy summer
The newest links to players like Kevin De Bruyne, though likely not true, show an interest in completing deals for players on the cheap.
Harvey Elliott’s rumours of a transfer to Wolves would then show the other side of this coin, as spaces will be needed to increase the quality wherever our head coach sees fit.
With Michael Edwards back in the fold and Richard Hughes given a year at the club before making any big moves, we will be looking for high transfer fees coming into the club.
That will then allow a strategic move for the targets that will likely be prioritised on both position and price point.
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What a surprise. All the fuss FSG make about having a good summer in the transfer market and now the excuses…….
They really have no intent on improving the team and rather spend billions on F1 and Golf, about time this group sold the team to someone who actually cares about football.
So in essence it will be make do with what you already have, so another 5th or 6 place finish for next year due to injuries, alongside a massive spending of £272 and thirteen pence.
We just won the league take a chill pill
Be careful what you wish ! we could end up with another Hicks & Gillette what FSG have done since taking over is remarkable they have revamped Anfield completely plus a new training ground plus 2 league titles and the european cup plus the other trophies , they work on the principle that they only spend what we bring in which i totally agree with , so long as we keep winning trophies I have no problem with them .YNWA
If they spent money on a quality player each year since they arrived we would probably have another 2 premier league titles and 2 more champions league titles. Remember one thing, Counthio moving to Barcelona gave us the money to build the team. Klopp worked miracles with the squad but had to overplay players because we didn’t have the quality on the bench. That’s why we ran out of energy and lost 2 titles because of it. Slot has the same problem now, if we don’t strengthen with quality we will end up 4th or 5th next season.
How long would go with this, you said as long as they go winning trophies, So is it when they stop winning that you will start complaining by then it will be too late, how long can you think that the manager will go on with a depilated team winning trophies? Even man city when they were strong were adding players, Real Madrid also,
At no point in that article did he say that we will have limited funds! A couple of windows ago we were two yeses from spending over £150m on two players that we didn’t really need and breaking the transfer record along the way! It’s right that they want to be careful and do the right business.
Agree one hundred per cent. We fans are being led up the garden path by Fenway sports. I’m sick of the same old bargain basement shopping. Arsenal and man city and most of the top 5 will have a significant spend it’s very disheartening. I really wish FSG would just sell up and eff off
Bargain basement? I wouldn’t regard the fees for VVD &Alisson for example as that. They also bid huge money for Caicedo & Lavia. The fees for Salah, Robbo, Lucho, Jota & Gakpo were absolute bargains but not basement type players. FSG has spent wisely and achieved much success, no complaints there. Spending huge amounts of money does not mean automatic success, so if you’re “disheartened” and want mega money spending perhaps you should go and watch United or Chelsea? Even better rock up at Everton’s new ground, they have a net spend of nearly £100m more than Liverpool over the last 5 years.
VVD and Alisson when was that 2018? That’s 7 years ago now. And without Coutinho going we’d possibly never have bought them.
Salah signed in 2017. Mane the season before. They were signed years ago now, and Salah will need replacing in a year or two. All brilliant signings.
Robbo was a brilliant signing but sadly he’s nearing the end of his time now. How many years ago was he signed?
The signings we’ve made since 2016/2017/2018 have been cheaper on average (barring Nunez) and not the same quality I’m afraid. We still heavily reliant on 3 of those players (Alisson, VVD and Salah) when we should have bought a few players who also chip in a lot more than they do. Mac Allister is probably our most successful signing since those early Klopp years.
Jota isn’t good enough to be a starter for a top team – just my opinion. He’s a squad player at best.
Diaz is frustrating as hell, and he’s scored a couple of goals recently but don’t let that cloud your judgement when deciding of he’s good enough.
Gapko is very good, but is he good enough? I’m not sure.
Mane, Salah and Firmino terrorised defences. All were world class. Our front three no longer do I’m afraid. I know we’ve scored loads, but when you meet a great side like PSG who is going to produce a bit of magic and get the winner?
Paisley said something like “I won’t watch a player losing his legs on my watch”. Fergus was the same.
Great managers constantly regenerate the side, by adding a a player or two each season. It’s not too much to ask, it’s just common sense. Both were ruthless, and supremely successful because of it.
Modern Liverpool managers can’t be ruthless even if they want to. They rely on someone coming in for players who simply aren’t good enough for a massive club like Liverpool and paying us over the odds. That’s why we have so many players leaving on free transfers. We can’t afford to cut our losses, sell them and replace with a new player who costs more. Nunez won’t leave unless someone is insane enough to pay us a decent amount. He’ll most likely leave on a free whenever his contract expires. In the meantime Slot will have to use him from time to time, even though he’s clearly failed, and not good enough.
But again the bottom line is FSG are only interested in the value of the club. Success on the field is secondary to them.
And Man U have shown FSG that you don’t need to be successful to maintain or increase the value of the club (or asset). Man Utds value has gone up since Ferguson left.
Yet we had a number of players losing their legs all at once necessitating the purchase of Gravenberch, MacAllister etc. That’s the FSG way. Boom and bust.
And if we hadn’t got lucky with the Saudi’s giving us too much for Henderson and Fabinho they’d still probably be here. We possibly wouldn’t have signed MacAllister or Gravenberch. No other club would have signed Henderson on his wages at his age.
Pointing to the fact that Man U and Everton have spent a lot more and are still rubbish, isn’t the point.
They’ve made mistakes on the recruitment side. We don’t make as many mistakes, or haven’t done, but what I and others think is, if we’d spent a bit more, we’d possibly have won more, and we wouldn’t have had seasons where we had Henderson and Fabinho filling in at centre back. We may have won one or two more league titles and another champions league. Who knows but without gambling and signing a player or two you’re likely to go backwards over time. Player get complacent (like Trent did) players get older (like Henderson, Fabinho, Mane etc) and before you know it, we’re struggling to qualify for the CL.
Our competitors are or should be City, Arsenal, Real Madrid, Barca, Bayern, year in year out, not every 3 or 4 years.
FSG and the club are always putting out stories about how much money they make commercially and how the value of the club has grown (take a look at the official LFC website), yet the likes of West Ham outspend us year in, year out.
The point is, the likes of Klopp and Slot could have or will do a lot better with a couple of quality players being signed each year or even as a minimum just one quality player.
I want us to be winning the league regularly and competing for the CL every year, and you have a better chance of doing that by investing each summer in at least one or two new players. Players who are hopefully better than what you have.
Slot said the squad is quality and hard to improve on (sound familiar?) but he refuses to play some of them. So are they as good as he says? It doesn’t appear to be judging by his actions.
We’ve just won the league and still you want the owners out, wake up football is busy. FSG saved our club.
No they swooped in, to “buy” the club for the bargain of the century. Much like someone buying a house at auction for a bargain price, that’s been repossessed.
They saw the potential of football, and the money it could make, especially with a Super League with no relegation (like in the US) and with their own TV rights which they don’t have to share as equally as they do in the PL at the moment.
A couple those plans went down the drain, but it must have still been the best investment FSG have ever made. They didn’t save us they saw a massive opportunity. I think someone else would have bought us and “saved” us.
Wise spending I need, Buy who can improve us and help win many more.
All of you that back FSG is part of the problem, because in your mind y ou think that FSG did bring 2 league’s and FA cups 2 champions league and league cups and 1 world club cup in a space of how long Stingy FSG Owners are there now you want to say that they did upgrade the stadium and a new state of the art training ground now FSG is the best Owners, but they are not ambitious and don’t want to make Liverpool the best team in the world.What FSG did is to make more money if they sell the club.
Exactly. They are happy to spend on the ground and to increase capacity. It makes the club more valuable.
Spending on players is another matter.
They bought Liverpool for £300m and it’s worth over £4B now.
And FSG have put how much of their money in since. they bought the club? £100m at most?
John Henry turns up each time when a trophy is being won, but we won those trophies in spite of them not because of them.
The recruitment teams and the managers won those trophies along with the players and loyal support of the fans. Yes FSG appointed the recruitment team which was very clever of them, but we want a world class team not a squad which still needs lots of improvement, even though we won the league.
Imagine what the recruitment team and Slot could do with the budgets most of the other teams in the Premier League seem to have.
Bargain of the century for FSG
If they spent money on a quality player each year since they arrived we would probably have another 2 premier league titles and 2 more champions league titles. Remember one thing, Counthio moving to Barcelona gave us the money to build the team. Klopp worked miracles with the squad but had to overplay players because we didn’t have the quality on the bench. That’s why we ran out of energy and lost 2 titles because of it. Slot has the same problem now, if we don’t strengthen with quality we will end up 4th or 5th next season.
These anti owners need to wake up. Do you want a club that is run well? OR do you want a club that buys any player going then loan out 1/2 the squad because theres no room for everyone……Chelsea. Do you want a cheating financial club that is facing 115 charges and who knows what wilk happen to them… man City……..Do you want a club that pays big wages to mediocre players…..Man U…… do you want a club that knows they need a striker but dont buy one….Arsenal then youve got Everton and Forest that had points deducted for over spending. You guys are so hard to please, sure FSG have been prudent with transgers but look at how much money has been spent on Anfield. If you dont like the owners no one will care if you FO and follow one of the other clubs I have mentioned. Dont let the door hit you on your arse on your way out
There’s no chance of Liverpool over spending. We had the lowest net spend last for 2024/25. (if you discount City’s accounting).
We’re miles within the PSR limits.
None of these so called irresponsible clubs who are over spending are going bankrupt.
Even Klopp wished they took more chances now and again.
This is the time to strengthen from a position of strength, not when we’re struggling to qualify for the Champions League which will happen if we don’t buy one or two players each season.
I don’t think we’ll spend much again, so I’m hoping Edwards and Hughes can perform a few miracles in finding a few gems.
This is not LFC writing the article!
Don’t listen to it, Ornsteins predictions they rarely come true. He should stick to reporting news.
Here we go.
“The squad is great”, “it’s hard to improve on the squad we have”
Yet Slot rightly or wrongly, refuses to play a lot of them.
FSG prefer to spend on bricks and mortar, and expect their managers to perform miracles every year. That’s why I think there’s substance to the Kenny Dalglish stand rumours. If they don’t spend on that stand they’ll find something else that will increase their value of their asset.
The club’s value has gone up by over £300 in the last year alone, but FSG still can’t put their hands in their own pockets to help strengthen the squad which it clearly needs if we want to compete with PSG, Barca etc.
Just hope we can spend more than the likes of Wolves, Fulham and Brighton this year.
A journalist says what he thinks will happen and everyone gets upset with the owners. Why don’t we just wait and see what happens first or write your own predictions