Ryan O’HanlonJul 29, 2025, 07:00 AM ETCloseRyan O’Hanlon is a staff writer for ESPN.com. He’s also the author of “Net Gains: Inside the Beautiful Game’s Analytics Revolution.”Follow on X
Ryan O’HanlonJul 29, 2025, 07:00 AM ET
CloseRyan O’Hanlon is a staff writer for ESPN.com. He’s also the author of “Net Gains: Inside the Beautiful Game’s Analytics Revolution.”Follow on X
EmailPrintOpen Extended Reactions
EmailPrintOpen Extended Reactions
Open Extended Reactions
A year ago, no one was excited aboutLiverpooland the fan base was ready to panic.
The club just lost its beloved and iconic manager, Jürgen Klopp.
The Reds were coming off a bounce-back season where they were top of the table in April, but a slew of injuries pulled them back into third place, behindManchester CityandArsenal, by the time the campaign was over. And yet, somehow, the response to this near-victory and a new coach from ownership was: “Let’s just run it back.”
After being turned down byReal SociedadmidfielderMartín Zubimendiright before the contracts were due to be signed, Liverpool ended the 2024 summer transfer window by signingGiorgi Mamardashvili, a goalkeeper who wouldn’t even be joining until this summer, andFederico Chiesa, an affordable former uber-prospect who would, at best, play backup minutes behindMohamed Salah.
Beyond the Liverpool fan base, no one else took Liverpool’s summer seriously. This was the clear third-best team in the league in 2023-24, and they’d done nothing to significantly change that.
In fact, more pundits picked Liverpool to miss theChampions Leaguethan to win thePremier League.
Well, fast-forward to today: Liverpool moonwalked to their 20th Premier League title, and they’ve followed it up by spending more than €300 million on player transfers — so far. By the end of this summer’s transfer window, that number could surpass €500 million.
So, uh, how are they able to spend that much money? And perhaps more interestingly, for a club that’s built multiple title-winning teams by acquiring mostly undervalued and underappreciated players, why are Liverpool suddenly investing so much into such an irrational and inefficient market?
So far, per Transfermarkt, Liverpool have acquired four players for significant fees. These numbers are not exact, but they at least provide a uniform source from which to work:
•Florian Wirtz, attacking midfielder, fromBayer Leverkusenfor €125 million•Hugo Ekitike, striker, fromEintracht Frankfurtfor €95 million•Milos Kerkez, fullback, fromBournemouthfor €46.9 million•Jeremie Frimpong, fullback, from Bayer Leverkusen for €40 million
Meanwhile, they’ve parted ways with three players for significant fees:
Source: Espnsoccer
.
