Liverpool were very active in the summer transfer window, adding Alexander Isak, Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitike, Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez to Arne Slot’s arsenal.
They also wanted to reinforce defensively but fell short with a bid for Crystal Palace captain Marc Guehi. With a little more in the way of ready cash, the Reds might have felt better equipped to get their man.
The Premier League champions are now set to spend big in order to strengthen their hand in the long term.
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Liverpool signed Florian Wirtz in the summer transfer window (Image credit: Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images)
Liverpool’s academy is a source of first team players and profit. Sales of academy players brought in around £100 million in transfer fees during the summer transfer window, a number that will increase when Aston Villa’s obligation to buy Harvey Elliott next year comes into play.
Strip away the various complexities of accounting for the true amounts invested in youth players and it stands to reason that investment in high-quality youth facilities can make top clubs a lot of money in the long run and make the difference between Liverpool’s Guehi bid and Palace’s asking price seem manageable.
Harvey Elliott has joined Aston Villa on loan with an obligation to buy (Image credit: Getty Images)
Liverpool are preparing to pour £20m into a redevelopment project for their youth training base at Kirkby, according to The Athletic.
“An indoor dome will be built on the current main pitch and connected to the existing academy building, which will undergo an extensive revamp,” reports James Pearce.
“The dome will give Liverpool a full-size indoor pitch for the first time. There will be enhanced medical and sports science areas.
“The outdoor artificial surface will be replaced with a grass pitch, which will become the centrepiece with a new stand for around 500 spectators. A planning application is set to be submitted this month and Liverpool hope that the project will be completed in 2028.”
Liverpool academy graduate Trent Alexander-Arnold (Image credit: Pedro Castillo/Real Madrid via Getty Images)
Pearce reports that Julian Ward, the technical director of Fenway Sports Group (FSG), Liverpool’s owners, visited ‘more than 25 clubs’ in Europe to inform the plans for the second phase of the Kirkby redevelopment.
The first phase saw around £2m spent on various additions to the site including cages, a skills area and floodlights to enable evening use of outdoor academy pitches.
In FourFourTwo‘s opinion, investing in youth facilities, coaching and education is the best way for elite clubs to prepare for the unknown future, an area of the business where their advantage over the rest can be pressed home irrespective of whatever financial regulations might be applied to the transfer market.
“Twenty First Group, who work with a number of Premier League clubs, calculated that [Trent] Alexander-Arnold had saved Liverpool around £145m during his nine seasons in the first-team squad based on his contribution and the potential costs of buying and retaining a top right-back during that period,” writes Pearce.
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