This takes Liverpool’s spending this summer to app. €530m/£461m. That is 2x of Manchester United’s record spending during a window.
I have been criticized for being too critical of Ineos and the Glazers. This is what — really — genuinely scares me. I knew this type of spending was coming. And these clubs can keep spending next summer, every summer. Since they sign top talents, they will be able to sell some of these guys for a profit.
If United has a poor 25/26 — we will be in a very tough situation next summer. Our debt is increasing every year. Our cash pool is drying up. The wage cost of Manchester United’s squad is — factually much less than HALF of City and Liverpool.
When Ineos came in, Manchester United had been in a dire and desperate need of a big investment in the squad.
But the pundits like Neville and co had been fooled by rivals pundits that United actually had invested a lot under the Glazers (City outspent us 5:1 the years before Fergie went, and then when we were in a desperate need to rebuild a whole squad whole City, Chelsea and co had loaded squads — we still spent much less than they did from 2013 to today). So Ineos was told to just get in smart people and things were alright.
So Ineos did just that. I think Ineos is good people, and they did what everyone told that they should.
But nobody had track of (1) just how much the Glazers had underinvested in the squad, (2) just how much the new CL would improve rivals income, (3) the multiples our rivals could get from buying talents and selling them for higher fees, and (4) how hard it would be to get ‘the smartest people in the business’ through the door (it’s probably a faulty concept, but that is for another post).
We have a chance to catch up today, that ship hasn’t sailed yet. It could still not have left port next summer. But take my word for it — 100% — it’s sailing soon. And at that point it will be as easy to catch up with Liverpool and City as it was for the manager of Nottingham or Villa to catch up Fergie in the 00’s.
But what does that mean? It’s when paying a player 250k/w is a big investment for us, while Liverpool can go ‘here is 750k/w, let us know what you decide’.
I called this two years ago, said that if we didn’t invest in the squad back then and missed the CL — Liverpool and City will have wage bills twice as big as ours. Now we are there. With player sales, they can make up towards 1-1.1bn in revenue. We are stuck at 600m.
It’s going to become 3x in a hurry.
🚨💥 Marc Guehi to Liverpool - DONE DEAL ✔️
Full agreement with Crystal Palace following the prior verbal agreement with the 25 y/o centre-back. Long-term contract.
The total transfer fee is understood to be €40 million. Medical done. As revealed earlier this week:
#LFC were very optimistic about signing
#Guehi before the end of the Deadline Day. Now it’s done.
@SkySportDE 🏴