Transfer deals often contain so many clauses that the true cost of them is impossible to ascertain. However, with the publicly available figures it appears that Chelsea have splashed out more in January than the next six biggest spending clubs in Europe combined.
They were all inevitably in the Premier League, with Liverpool one of them (even though they only signed Cody Gakpo). No club in Germany, Italy or Spain spent more than £8.5million on a single player – and that was Borussia Dortmund signing 16-year-old Julien Duranville – while Marseille’s purchase of Vitinha for £28million was the top transfer in France. Even the biggest other leagues can’t compete with the money in English football, much less the smaller ones.
It seems the rest of the Premier League is struggling to keep up with Todd Boehly’s lavish project in west London too. Even if we ignore the amount Chelsea have spent (and we shouldn’t), the number of players they have signed this season is bewildering. It certainly puts Liverpool’s efforts from recent years into the shade.
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It will be fascinating to see if their seemingly scattershot approach pays off. While Nottingham Forest obviously operate much further down the football food chain, they too performed a massive squad overhaul in the summer. Having lost seven of their first 10 league games, they’ve only been beaten twice in the last 10. Their process appears to be working.
The Blues signed eight players for fees in the last window, though few of them have made too much of a positive impact. Marc Cucurella has had the most league minutes of the new recruits but has been in poor form while Raheem Sterling would have hoped to score more than six goals by this point.
Wesley Fofana was the most expensive signing they made in the summer, though his £75million fee has been trumped by the £107million Chelsea have just spent on rumoured Liverpool transfer target, Enzo Fernandez. The Argentine World Cup winner has been joined at Stamford Bridge by a further six permanent recruits in January, plus Joao Felix on loan.
It’s important to remember that what Chelsea have done in 2022/23 is an extreme example of transfer business and almost any other club would look parsimonious by comparison. Their strategy certainly highlights the relative lack of transfers the Reds have conducted in recent years though.
Boehly has approved the signing of 15 players for transfer fees since July. Liverpool, by contrast, have acquired the same number, and for far less money in total, over the last three years (per LFCHistory).
The Reds’ signings in this period include several youngsters who have not yet had the opportunity to make a serious impact, as well as emergency centre-back Ben Davies who left the club without appearing for the first team. Marcelo Pitaluga, a 2020 purchase from Fluminense, has yet to make his senior debut either while Stefan Bajcetic, Ben Doak, Kaide Gordon and Calvin Ramsay have 22 appearances between them, and just nine starts. They look capable of impressing and making long-term contributions to the squad, but it will take time.
If we ignore that sextet for the sake of argument, as well as Sepp van den Berg (whose four appearances for Liverpool have all been in the domestic cups), then the Reds’ last 15 fee paying transfers date back five years. The group, which began with Virgil van Dijk, cost slightly more than their Chelsea counterparts, and transfer inflation will have only widened that gap further. But the differing speed of investment by the two clubs raises an uncomfortable question for Fenway Sports Group, even if Chelsea’s recent business has been beyond radical.
It is to FSG’s credit that Liverpool haven’t needed to purchase 15 players in one season, thanks to a sensible strategy which built a world-beating squad with careful recruitment. That group has aged together and begun to break up with players moving on though.
The Reds probably can’t afford to take three years to buy their next 15 senior players, much less half a decade. Boehly has blown the market apart and Liverpool need to swiftly pick up their pieces.
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