LONDON: English soccer — and Liverpool, in particular — flexed their financial muscles in unprecedented fashion in a summer transfer window that highlighted the growing imbalance in the European game as well as the effect player power can have in securing a move.
Here’s what we learned from the last two months in the transfer market:
English dominance
The raw facts are that the 20 clubs in the Premier League — fueled by unrivaled spending power because of the competition’s huge domestic and international broadcasting deals — splashed out a record total of $4 billion on players in the summer window. That outlay is more than Europe’s other four top leagues — Spain, Italy, Germany, France — combined.
The previous single-window record spend was 2.36 billion pounds (now $3.2 billion) in 2023.
More pertinently, the Premier League’s net spend was $1.75 billion, compared to Italy ($100 million) and Spain ($60 million), according to figures by Transfermarkt. France and Germany even returned a profit.
An attempt by Europe’s top clubs to launch a Super League in 2021 collapsed within 48 hours.
Perhaps there already is one — it’s called the Premier League.
Liverpool go big
Leading the unprecedented spending in the Premier League were Liverpool, whose outlay of $570 million was the biggest ever by one club in single window.
The English champions broke the British transfer record twice — first for Germany playmaker Florian Wirtz and then on deadline day when Sweden striker Alexander Isak joined from Newcastle for $170 million, making him the fourth most expensive player in soccer history.
Liverpool could afford such outrageous spending because the club bought only one player last summer — Federico Chiesa for 10 million pounds ($13.2 million) — while making a net profit of more than $50 million as Arne Slot leaned on the squad bequeathed by Jurgen Klopp to win the Premier League in his first season in charge.
This summer, the Reds have received about $250 million from sales, too. While their signings look strong on paper, their ability to recoup money for players is equally as impressive. For that, they’ve often looked to Saudi Arabia for a bail-out, with Darwin Nunez the latest to move there.
Player power
It was a summer when some players went on the front foot in pushing for moves, using Instagram Stories — rather than making an old-fashioned transfer request — to demonstrate their unhappiness at their clubs
That was exactly the tactic of Isak, who effectively went on strike at Newcastle while he agitated for a move to Liverpool. Newcastle confronted Isak, going public itself with a bold and rare statement challenging one of its star players, but eventually gave in.
Wissa used the same approach, posting about his disgruntlement with Brentford just a day before the transfer window shut having not trained with the squad for weeks. He got his move late on deadline day, too, as a replacement for Isak at Newcastle.
Contrast that, for example, with the attitude of Crystal Palace captain Marc Guehi, who reportedly had his heart set on a move to Liverpool and kept playing for his team while the subject of a bid from the Reds. Palace couldn’t find a replacement and Guehi stayed — likely earning respect from fans in the process.
England vs. Europe
English soccer’s runaway revenue is a trend that’s set to accelerate in European club competitions.
The Premier League has a record six teams in the Champions League’s 36-team lineup helped by 17th-place Tottenham winning the Europa League last season.
Those six teams can realistically expect to earn collective UEFA prize money of about 600 million euros ($698 million) — more than the entire prize fund of the second-tier Europa League which will be shared among 36 clubs from 23 different countries. They include Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest taking more UEFA cash back to England.
The wealth gap within the Champions League is already huge.
Liverpool’s sixth-highest transfer fee paid this offseason — 31 million euros ($36 million) for Italian teenager Giovanni Leoni as a back-up defender — is more than the entire reported revenue last year of one of their Champions League opponents, Qarabag of Azerbaijan.
Union Saint-Gilloise and Slavia Prague qualified direct to the Champions League by winning their domestic league titles and could plan their offseason business accordingly.
Still, Union have turned a profit of 50 million euros ($58 million) on player trading and their biggest buy was just 5 million euros ($5.8 million), for Austria winger Raul Florucz from Olimpija Ljubljana.
Slavia Prague have made a profit of 25 million euros ($29 million) with the biggest fee paid 3.5 million euros ($4 million) for Czech midfielder Michal Sadílek from Dutch club Twente.
Same competition, different financial world.
And what about Wrexham?
Wrexham’s march to the Premier League shows no sign of slowing — their dealings in the transfer window is proof of that.
The Welsh club spent $40 million this summer on new players, repeatedly breaking their transfer record in a ruthless spree overseen by their Hollywood celebrity owners, Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.
The squad for this season’s campaign in the second-tier Championship looks unrecognizable compared to the one they had three years ago, when the team were playing in the fifth tier.
Wrexham may have had a tough start to their Championship campaign, winning one of their first four games, but a fourth straight promotion still seems possible.