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Jürgen Klopp from Liverpool FC
Photo: LINDSEY PARNABY / AFP
What about Liverpool?
Manchester City signed the British international Jack Grealish from Aston Villa for the British record sum of almost 120 million euros and also worked hard, albeit in vain, on a transfer of Harry Kane from Tottenham Hotspur. Chelsea from coach Thomas Tuchel is considered City's closest competitor for the championship, especially with Romelu Lukaku, who came from Inter Milan for 115 million euros. Manchester United has already presented two new attractions to its followers, namely Jadon Sancho from Dortmund and Raphaël Varane from Real Madrid for a combined total of more than 120 million euros. At the last minute, Cristiano Ronaldo is moving from Juventus back to Manchester.
Liverpool FC, however, Champions League winners 2019 and champions 2020, as in the summer of a year ago, largely defied the logic common in England that progress is mainly achieved through high spending on the player market.
So far, only one entry has been welcomed, namely central defender Ibrahima Konaté from RB Leipzig for 40 million euros.
Or, as they say in England: for
only
40 million euros.
The question is whether that's enough to play for the title in the Premier League.
Or whether the team of coach Jürgen Klopp is not only overtaken, but even left behind by the top teams in the league.
There will be a first impression of it this Saturday.
Then Liverpool welcomes Chelsea with Tuchel and Lukaku (6.30 p.m., SPIEGEL live ticker).
Those blues landed 33 points behind the Reds in Liverpool's 2019/2020 championship season.
Last season there were two.
Since Tuchel has been here, they have won the Champions League, and with Lukaku in the center of the storm, the team appears much stronger.
The favorite in the direct duel on Saturday is therefore not Liverpool FC.
In addition to the two Manchester clubs, Leicester City is pushing forward, which has developed into a strong team under coach Brendan Rodgers, and Arsenal FC invested around 150 million euros in new ones.
“It's not as spectacular as our competition.
Sorry for that «
Klopp defends the reluctance of his employer on the player market and distributes one or the other pointed remark in the direction of the apparently unrestricted investing competitors. “We're holding this roster together for all the right reasons and we're trying to improve it. We've done that every year, with a few changes here and there. It's just not as spectacular as our competition. Sorry for that. "
Instead of well-known new acquisitions, Liverpool hopes to get back on track by returning to normal after the disappointing pre-season with the ultimately conciliatory third place.
The reintegration of defense chief Virgil van Dijk, who was absent for almost the entire season due to a cruciate ligament injury, and the return of the spectators should be enough to help the club back into the top quality segment.
But what if several players get injured again?
After Georginio Wijnaldum's departure to Paris, the number of staff is thin, especially in the midfield.
It's not that the Reds suffer from poverty.
According to the Deloitte Money League, Liverpool was the club with the fifth highest turnover in Europe in the 2019/2020 season.
With 558.6 million euros, they were ahead of Manchester City (549.2 million euros) and Chelsea (469.7 million euros).
What sets the clubs apart is their business model.
For City and Chelsea, financial success is of secondary importance thanks to the wealthy owners Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Roman Abramowitsch.
Liverpool's owners, the Boston-based Fenway Sports Group, want to make money with the club.
High personnel costs
The strategy is therefore not to spend more than you take in. Expensive transfers are only possible if players are handed in beforehand. Professionals like Van Dijk, goalkeeper Alisson or goal scorer Mohamed Salah have only afforded Liverpool in recent years because Philippe Coutinho, Luís Suárez or Raheem Sterling were sold at high prices. They were signed according to a clear plan, the club relied more on data-based scouting than many of its competitors and thus rose to become a title contender.
Currently, a large part of the income goes into player salaries.
Liverpool's salary costs have almost doubled in the past five years, to just under € 380 million - even before the club extended the long-term contracts of Van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Fabinho, Alisson and Andrew Robertson.
Which should have been expensive.
In addition, the club invested and is investing in infrastructure with the construction of a new training center, which was moved into at the end of 2020, and the planned expansion of the Anfield Stadium.
The team is only strengthened selectively.
The attacker Diogo Jota, brought in last summer by Wolverhampton Wanderers, struck, scored nine goals in his first Premier League season in Liverpool and also scored in the two wins at the start of the new season (3-0 against Norwich, 2-0 against Burnley).
While rivals Manchester and United as well as Chelsea are enjoying their high-quality transfers, Liverpool are relying on renewal from the inside.
Harvey Elliott, who was promoted from the youth, has recently been hopeful - the 18-year-old made a promising debut in the Premier League against Burnley.
He was once poached from the youth team of Fulham FC, cost: 1.7 million euros transfer fee.