There is a phrase within the industry that some of the bigwigs in the offices of Premier League clubs are starting to call ‘Liverpool tax’.
It refers to the champions’ knack of ekeing every penny out of a potential deal and selling their assets for healthy prices when other teams might not have been able to get anywhere near as much money for the same player.
Liverpool are not just the kings of England but also kings of the transfer market.
If they sign Alexander Isak from Newcastle, or Crystal Palace captain Marc Guehi, this is a window that will be looked back on for years to come… especially if it propels them to back-to-back titles.
The headline figure is the big, fat £321million they have spent on eight new incomings, from £116m Florian Wirtz to the latest buy, £26m 18-year-old Giovanni Leoni. ‘How can they afford to spend that?,’ ask rival fans. ‘Surely that falls foul of financial rules?’
Well, it does not. And the reasons for that answer are tenfold – but the main one is the other key number to Liverpool’s summer: £217m.
Darwin Nunez won the title with Liverpool but Arne Slot was happy to move him on
Nunez joined Saudi Arabia side Al Hilal for £46.3m after an underwhelming Anfield spell
That is the money the Reds have recouped from selling eight players (as with incomings, both numbers factor in potential add-ons being achieved but regardless, the rough net expenditure figure will be around the same).
Only Bournemouth and Chelsea have seen more cash come into their clubs this summer. The Cherries, of course, sold the heart of their team with Dean Huijsen, Illia Zabarnyi and Milos Kerkez making big moves to Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain and Liverpool.
And these departures mean that despite spending more than anyone in the league, the Reds are not top of the ‘net spend table’ – a ridiculed concept, we know – and instead Manchester United are, having so far failed to sell any of their so-called ‘bomb squad’.
To be fair, given the excruciatingly bad season at Old Trafford last term, it should not come as a surprise that nobody wants to buy their star men – let alone the ones Ruben Amorim does not fancy.
Liverpool’s sales fall into three categories: those who wanted to leave (Trent Alexander-Arnold); cashing in on talented youngsters for good money (Jarell Quansah, Ben Gannon Doak, Tyler Morton); players allowed to exit if the price was right (Luis Diaz, Darwin Nunez, Caoimhin Kelleher, Nat Phillips).
Each of those deals has its own back-story that makes the Anfield hierarchy look good, starting with the fact Alexander-Arnold had already played his last game for the club and sporting director Richard Hughes managed to get a £10m cheque.
Yes, if we are being honest, the fact he was allowed to run his contract down was a failure on behalf of the club’s top brass but Hughes inherited that situation. But Daily Mail Sport was told the Spanish club’s opening offer was £850,000… so £10m looks a shrewd deal.
Diaz, who scored 17 goals last season, was not pushed towards the exit door. Arne Slot liked him a lot, but the Colombian was in search of a new contract on terms that Liverpool were ill-prepared to pay for a player who would have been 30 when his existing deal expired.
Luis Diaz moved to Bayern and Liverpool were delighted to bag £65.5m for the Colombian
Jarrell Quansah, playing for new club Leverkusen again Chelsea in pre-season, went for £35m
The forward had also privately asked to leave last summer and, believe it or not, Manchester City were one of the clubs who contacted his entourage back then alongside Saudi Arabian side Al Nassr.
Fast forward to this summer. Barcelona came knocking in early June and expressed their interest to sign him for around £50m, but they were told where to go. From the outside that felt like ‘case closed’ but, as we wrote at the time, it felt like the door to a sale was still left ajar.
Inside the Munich powerhouse, they thought that Liverpool had exploited every weakness of chief executive Jan-Christian Dreesen and forced the German giants to overpay for a player who, at 28, is the wrong age profile for the players they chase. Fingers, as they always are at Bayern, were pointed.
Liverpool, though, were laughing all the way to the bank: satisfied to receive such a sum and make profit on a player who had given them three and a half solid years and would likely leave for peanuts in a couple of seasons.
Speaking of profit, the three best sales this summer have been those of Quansah, Morton and Gannon Doak, the latter of whom joined Bournemouth this week for £25m three years on from leaving Celtic for £600,000.
Gannon Doak, 19, is fast, direct and exciting, once described as a ‘Tasmanian devil’ by Virgil van Dijk. But given injury problems that have stalked his senior career, £25m is a good deal for Liverpool, especially considering the fact that Slot did not seem to rate him as highly as Jurgen Klopp.
Quansah broke through under Klopp in 2023-24 and started last season as Van Dijk’s defensive partner but struggled for confidence and form after being hooked at half-time of their Premier League opener at Ipswich.
Liverpool still like the aforementioned trio and have inserted buyback clauses. Historically, those agreements appeared to be for insurance alone but this summer Manchester City demonstrated how to use them well by sneaking in to bring James Trafford home from Burnley two years after selling.
Real Madrid paid £10m just to get Trent Alexander-Arnold in time for the Club World Cup
Ben Gannon Doak was another big sale for Liverpool, moving to Bournemouth for £25m
It is believed there is a pre-existing agreement for a contract if they decide to buy Quansah back from Bayer Leverkusen. After a period playing every week in the Bundesliga, there is no reason why that cannot be a reality, especially given how the Reds need to evolve their back line.
They also cashed in on Morton, who joined Lyon, after the midfielder had a positive campaign for England as they won the Under 21 European Championship again. The three youngsters are good but £75m combined is excellent business, especially given two are pure profit.
Liverpool being good at selling is nothing new. When Hughes was getting pelters last year for a lack of transfer incomings, those inside the building were heralding him for managing to get £52.5m from Brentford for the double sale of Fabio Carvalho and Sepp van den Berg.
Some clubs were not prepared to meet the £25m asking price for defender Van den Berg but Hughes, stubbornly, pointed to his experience on loan in the Championship and German Bundesliga compared to other defenders who had moved that summer at a similar age.
One was £20m Taylor Harwood-Bellis and the other was £15.2m Dean Huijsen, who has since moved on for £50m from Bournemouth to Real Madrid. Given the prowess of the laptop gurus at Liverpool, they will have known that Van den Berg was no future £50m man. So off he went, striking while the iron was hot.
It was similar with Morton, with some poor bids turned down last year and Hughes pointing to Adam Wharton, who had similar Championship experience before his move from Blackburn to Crystal Palace. A year on, they got a good fee for Morton.
Even though they were pleased with the money for Morton, his value would almost certainly be higher if they had not blocked a loan move to Bayer Leverkusen, where he would have played often, in favour of a sale last year.
So even though they have a lot of wins, they are not all astounding successes and Nunez is the main case in point here. Signed for £85m in 2022, he was compared to Erling Haaland but ultimately must go down as a flop of a signing despite some important goals.
Liverpool are still hoping to seal a deal for Crystal Palace defender Marc Guehi
Alexander Isak is on strike at Newcastle trying to force through a move to Anfield
Getting £46.3m for the Uruguayan represents a loss but it is also one that, privately, Liverpool may view as a good deal. Napoli were keen but got nowhere near that figure in negotiations, plus the Reds felt vindicated in standing firm in January when the Saudis came knocking.
More sales could follow though things are quiet at the moment in terms of enquiries for Kostas Tsimikas, while RB Leipzig are yet to follow up on expressing their interest for Harvey Elliott. Friday’s hero Federico Chiesa now seems more likely to be staying put than leaving. But that £217m recouped could easily rise in the next fortnight.
Overall, Liverpool’s canny business in terms of outgoings has allowed them to spend so lavishly in terms of incomings, with £321m spent and more to follow if Newcastle and Crystal Palace play ball.
It means they can afford to buy Marc Guehi – and they will if Palace lower their demands. It means they can absolutely afford to buy Alexander Isak – and they will if Newcastle manage to sign a couple of forwards and then open the door to a sale.
Just like they do on the pitch, Liverpool are the kings of sitting calmly and bullying teams into submission at the negotiating table, too.
