As a Manchester United fan, I’m extremely jealous of the Reds ownership group. Despite Fenway Sports Group (FSG) openly selling the club, Liverpool have still been frugal and efficient in the transfer market with the Cody Gakpo signing.
You know an ownership group is good when they are still willing to invest millions of pounds/euros/dollars into the club they own, even when they are actively trying to sell their ownership stake in said club.
For as long as the Fenway Sports Group (FSG) has been in charge of Liverpool, the club has undergone a renaissance in both on-field and off-field success. Essentially, there hasn’t been a better run club in all of England in the last twelve years in terms of turning a profit on a relatively small budget into sustained success, despite the influx of cash in the game in the past decade.
Sure, there has been more successful clubs (ex: Chelsea: 12 major titles, Manchester City: 13 major titles) in that span, there have been clubs that have earned a higher annual revenue (Manchester City: £644.9M, Manchester United: £558M), and there are even clubs more popular on social media (Manchester United: 60.6M Instagram followers), but none of these clubs can boast of being as successful while also being financially frugal.
Clubs like Man City, Man United, and Chelsea have blown hundreds of millions of pounds/euros/dollars on busts practically every summer transfer window, such as Benjamin Mendy (City), Alexis Sanchez (United), Romelu Lukaku (Chelsea, United), Eliaquim Mangala (City), Angel Di Maria (United), Fernado Torres (Chelsea), yet they always find the money to continue buying the next hundred million player whenever the opportunity arises.
That’s not what Liverpool has been about under FSG.
In the twelve years of FSG’s reign, Liverpool have only spent more than £50M on a player five times, with all five of those players coming into the team in the last four years. Plus, all of these players are still playing for the club and cannot thus be considered an outright flop (ex: a player that cost £50M+ and was sold after 2 years), though I can see an argument for Naby Keita (£52.75M) being the sole flop from the list of £50M+ players (i.e.: Darwin Nunez, Luis Dias, Virgil Van Dijk, Allisson, Naby Keita).
Nevertheless, this list just proves how efficient and successful FSG, their scouts, Directors of Football, Sporting Directors, transfer negotiators, and manager Jurgen Klopp have been with the limited funds the club brings in and uses on transfers. And the Cody Gakpo transfer is yet another example.
The 23-year-old former PSV Eindhoven star was the hottest young superstar in the world coming out of the World Cup as he scored 3 goals and led the line for the Netherlands during their run to the Quarterfinals. Teams like Man United, Arsenal, and FC Barcelona were supposedly supposed to be in for Gakpo with potential price tags of over £50M, though Liverpool and FSG snatched him up for just £45M.
And that’s if he hits all of the add-on requirements.
If Gakpo somehow fails in a one of the best systems in the world, under one of the best managers in the world, and surrounded by some of the best players in the world, the Dutch international might cost the Reds just £35M when all is said and done.
That’s ridiculous, and why Liverpool have ended their 30-year Premier League drought under FSG, became Champions League winners again, won the FIFA Club World Cup, won the FA Cup and League Cup, came in 2nd in the Premier League multiple times, and nearly completed the historic Quadrupole.
And it’s also going to be massively missed by all Liverpool fans when FSG eventual finds the right buyers for the club and sells their ownership stake, ending one of the most successful eras in club history.
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