How much would we spend?

So, all this talk about buying Mbappe, or Sancho, or Haaland or *insert preferred name here*, made me think - and that doesn't happen very often.
Obviously, few of us really think we'll land these players and it's mostly banter, but...
We've become one of the top clubs in the world again, so there's no reason to think they'd be out of place, but would we ever consider spending the sort of money required to get them?
We know the owners run the club as a business and won't throw money about, and Klopp likes to build a team rather than simply import ready-made superstars. We have spent money, but only to plug major gaps in the team's structure - not in the sense of "just" improving on what we already have.
Do we continue like this or do we change policy, knowing that spending big is the only way to get the top players - because we know someone will if we don't.
Anyone who has read anything I write on here will know my opinion, but not everyone shares it and I thought it might be worth a discussion.

 

I never thought we'd pay what we did for VVD or Alisson

 

We have a good squad and I think we're in a position where we should buy 1 big player who's at the right age other than improving the squad.

 

Me neither - but as I said, their positions were identified as crucial to the team's progress. I know this could seem an odd thing to say when we're going through a rough patch, but generally speaking the team has been great in other areas.
Of course the superstars could improve the team (although not all succeed in our league), but would it be enough to justify the expense?
The more you pay, the more you're expected to pay. Big transfer fees mean you will be expected to match them in the future, big wages will see other team members looking for more.
Although I'd love to see someone like Mbappe at the club, I think it just creates problems in the long term.

 

Agree with all that.

I don't see us breaking the £100m barrier any time soon. Signings like Jota are much more likely

 

And he's a cracking player.

 

As great as it would be to see Mbappe in a Liverpool shirt, I don't want us to sign him.

Yes, his contract situation will make him cheaper in terms of a transfer fee but he'll even more in wages as a result. He'll be wanting £250k+ per week which I don't see us doing, then there is the knock on effect if we did; Salah and VVD would be expecting a party increase immediately!

 

Oh definitely. My comment wasn't meant to be derogative to Jota, far from it. He's a fantastic player who will inevitably become first choice in time imo.

My comment was more about the club being shrewd in business rather than chucking money at it.

As we've seen with VVD and Alisson though, we will cough up thre transfer fee if the situation is right to. I just don't see us coughing up that level of wages

 

Yeah. I know that you and I tend to think alike on this and I was wondering what others, who have different opinions, had to say on it.
I don't see FSG or Klopp changing their minds too much. FSG run a tight ship, and Klopp prides himself on building a team, not buying one.

 

Yeah I hadn't taken it as a negative comment.

 

Apology accepted

 

I think when people think of superstars they think ronaldo, mbappe, neymar, messi... and generally the perception is that they have to be the star man, everything has to go through them and they are centre attention and some places that works.


however I think under klopp anywhere it will always be the sum of the parts is greater etc and team morale and work ethic is just as important.

look at our team and they generally all seem to get on, be good friends have good respect and I wouldn’t call any of they super stars but some very very good players who are humble and put the work in.

I don’t see us splashing 100m on a superstar but I do see us maybe spending another 80m on a very very good player if they fit the profile and it’s for a certain area of the squad that needs working. I get the feeling fsg don’t really have a budget more like if you can justify why then we’ll back you. Abs klopps proven with his dealing that he can be trusted to spend the money. If in 3 years he’s spent 70m on 5 players who have all flopped that may be different approach

wouldn’t surprise me if in a year or two we went out bit for a forward who fits that profile as we need to replace the front 3 over time though

 

I’d imagine mbappe is already on that so would probably end up looking at Neymar messi Ronaldo type wages which I just don’t see us ever going towards unless there was some sort of financial incentives from investors like Nike or some lower wages but with a massive image rights deal or % of shirt sponsors etc

 

Probably, I was being conservative

 

So there are two parts to this discussion for me.

a) fees

b) players costs over the contract.


If we compare the vvd transfer to neymar transfer as an example.

VVD 75million payment. 180k per week with a supposed increase in payment after winning the league. I don't know how much the agent got and i don't know how much vvd got as a lump sum to sign up

Neymar in 2016 signed a new contract with barca and apparently got 64 million euros as a signing bonus paid over his contract, and he used barca to pay it up when he moved to PSG.

neymar over the course of his 5 year deal at PSG is supposedly getting 350million dollars. and cost 263million dollars

so neymar is a 6 HUNDRED MILLION investment by PSG.

So Mbappe:
this is why the talk is pure fantasy and why he has not moved to Real yet but had to run down his contract. It is absolutely a MASSIVE MASSIVE transfer.

He will be wanting 500k per week min imo.


haaland and sancho:
These are different cases but are both at one club that will not allow players to go cheap. There is talk of transfer clauses for haaland of 75mil. Sancho is supposedly running down his contract, however neither would be cheap in 2021. We might afford them the fee.

However then look the player costs, over 5 years, either will probably cost about 100million if you count in the weekly wage, signing on fees and agent fees.

Compare to VVD and Alisson:
VVD at 180k per week and alisson on supposedly about 100k. fits our wage structure but were big big fees. The cost of having alisson and even vvd at his wages is sustainable and they deliver a huge amount.

now contrast to what cheslea are reportedly paying havertz (bit of a disaster so far) and werner. these transfer will cost Chelsea a huge amount

Havertz is reputedly on 300k per week at cheslea, contributing nothing so far. 90million pound fee and agent and player took a huge signing on fee. That will basically end up costing chelsea the bones of 200million over the 5 years.

 

If you really want to get technical, you should consider shirt sales and the value too

 

What most are ignoring here is the marketing aspect of all of this. It is no coincidence that we took a Nike Kit deal that was smaller than the NB deal but with a cut of the sales. Mbappe is also Nike.. not sure who else is I personally don’t think that Mbappe will happen but if it does, it will be because of this and the future marketing opportunities for all parties. FSG are good at it. Nike are great at it...

 

Image rights are a whole other level of sinister.

There's a reason both ronaldo and messi will retire in the USA. You have to be wiling to put money into holding companies for these guys

 

I don't think we'd be thinking about this in as much detail if we didn't have the current ongoing injury problems that we do, it has become a bit of a crisis, particularly with our threadbare defence. I still don't think we should resort to a high rolling private room in a casino type of approach to transfers. That said, I'd be in favour of us going after and paying for a top class CB, as we only have one at the club in VVD, but that's a position were I think we still clearly need to strengthen, so in my mind it wouldn't just be buying an expensive hyped up player because we can. Everywhere else we seem to be well stocked so should just continue the approach we've always had since Klopp arrived rather than chasing the hype

 

This^