Liverpool 'do a Chelsea' but £150m splurge could end with 'ransom' stance

Liverpool have spent £150m this summer if you include all the add-ons and do some generous rounding-up. And it’s already paid for! Except it’s not but Liverpool being brilliant at transfers is the narrative de jour…

This means more Liverpool spending

You may have noticed that Liverpool have spent rather a lot of money already this summer – right now, the total is £131m – and it seems they are about to spend rather a lot more.

Liverpool are paying Bayer Leverkusen an initial £100m for Florian Wirtz, though almost every outlet is claiming this as a £116m move that ‘shatters the British transfer record’. Mediawatch realises that we need to let this go because we cannot name all 427 publishers that have committed this atrocity over the last few days, but we can quietly seethe.

But what we’re not going to accept is that Liverpool have now spent £150m. Even if you take the Wirtz fee at £116m (wrong), that’s quite the rounding-up to get to £150m with £29.5m for Jeremie Frimpong. That’s not even in the realms of ‘ish’.

And of course the reality is that Liverpool’s summer spending is actually £131m. And breathe.

But that number simply won’t do if you work for the Mirror and you are tasked with explaining…

How Liverpool have already paid off £150m Florian Wirtz and Jeremie Frimpong transfers

They then try and explain – via some rudimentary knowledge of amortisation – that actually, Liverpool ‘have effectively covered the immediate cost of their business with Bayer Leverkusen by selling Trent Alexander-Arnold, Caoimhin Kelleher and Jarell Quansah for a combined £61.5m’.

How very clever. And how very ‘exactly what Chelsea have been doing’. Indeed, the same Mirror reporter now claiming that Liverpool have pulled off some sort of financial masterstroke was writing only in April ‘why Chelsea owners’ smart idea to avoid PSR breach will spell future trouble’.

For while it’s true that Liverpool ‘have effectively covered the immediate cost of their business with Bayer Leverkusen by selling Trent Alexander-Arnold, Caoimhin Kelleher and Jarell Quansah for a combined £61.5m’, that does mean that they have to do the same for five years, while also covering the amortised costs of all the other new signings likely to be made.

Liverpool are in an excellent financial position – largely because they spent so little on transfers last year – but they are not alone in spreading the cost of their new signings over the period of their contract; it’s now standard practice across elite football.

And they absolutely have not ‘already paid off £150m Florian Wirtz and Jeremie Frimpong transfers’; they have merely balanced them in this year’s books.

When it’s Chelsea, it’s a ‘loophole’; when it’s Liverpool, it ‘permits the Reds to keep on splurging’. We guess it just means more…

What a Guehi day

Also coming through the door at Liverpool – after the £40m Milos Kerkez inevitably ‘takes Liverpool spending past £200m’ – may be Marc Guehi from Crystal Palace.

For obvious reasons, the Mirror would like you to think this deal is really quite far along…

Liverpool transfer news: Reds’ stance on Marc Guehi swoop emerges as £35m deal gets green light

Obviously, the £35m deal that has been given the ‘green light’ is Jarell Quansah’s £30m (rising to £35m) move to Bayer Leverkusen and not a £35m deal for Guehi, as that does not exist outside the realm of misleading headlines.

As for the Reds’ stance on a ‘swoop’ for Guehi: ‘Liverpool will not be held to ransom by Crystal Palace.’

As opposed to all the other Premier League clubs more than willing to he ‘held to ransom’ in the transfer market.

The Daily Star take a similar tack with their Guehi headline:

Liverpool transfer news: Arne Slot’s next signing already ‘unveiled’ as Marc Guehi stance clear

Now we learn that ‘Liverpool won’t be strong-armed by Crystal Palace’. Well done Liverpool, they really are brilliant at this transfer lark.

With Liverpool reluctant to shell out a hefty sum for Guehi, Palace might have to strike a deal to prevent losing the ex-Chelsea player for free next year.

Or maybe, you know, sell to somebody else?

How much?

“Quansah has a lot of clubs sniffing around him, keeping an eye on him, both in England and in the German Bundesliga. One of them could be Bayer Leverkusen, because as we know Jonathan Tah is off to Bayern Munich. Maybe they could try and get Quansah, but Liverpool would want a lot of money for him. We’re talking around £50 million” – Daily Mail writer Lewis Steele on YouTube, May 2025.

‘Bayer Leverkusen have agreed to sign Liverpool defender Jarell Quansah for an initial fee of £30million plus £5million in add-ons’ – Lewis Steele, MailOnline, June 2025.

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