Revenue High + Financial Health, TA Analysis Why Liverpool can spend 300 million euros this summer 📝

Liverpool officially announced a total price of 95 million euros to sign striker Ekitic from Frankfurt, and its recruitment expenditure exceeded 300 million euros this summer. The Athletic posted a message to talk about why the Reds can frequently make large-scale signings this summer.

First of all, the club's revenue hit a record high. In the 2023-24 season, although Liverpool could only participate in the UEFA Cup and eventually ranked third in the Premier League, the club's revenue exceeded the 600 million pound mark for the first time that season. Last season, with the return to the Champions League and winning the club's 20th top league championship in China, coupled with the full opening of the stands and the continued growth of commercial revenue from Anfield's expansion, revenue is expected to exceed 700 million pounds, and the 2025-26 season is likely to hit another new high.

According to TA's estimates, Liverpool earned £181.5 million by winning the Premier League title, and can benefit from the overall revenue growth of the league even if they fail to defend their title next season. The new TV broadcast cycle will begin in the new season, and the Premier League is expected to earn £12.25 billion in revenue over the next three years, an increase of 17% over 2022-25. The club's business growth prospects are also optimistic, with Liverpool and Adidas starting to work together in August this year, which provides a base fee of £30 million per year, and the actual benefits will be double that number.

The surge in income is certainly gratifying, but if the expenditure is ridiculously high, no matter how high the income is, it may not be helpful. In the 2023-24 season, Liverpool lost 57.1 million pounds before tax, the highest in the club's history. However, TA said that Liverpool is expected to resume profitability in the 2024-25 season, and it is a healthy profit. Even if the payroll rose to 400 million pounds due to the payment of championship prizes, the club could still achieve a profit of about 30 million pounds.

However, Liverpool is a club with higher wages in the Premier League. According to TA, the weekly salary of new players Wiltz does not include the bonus of about 200,000 pounds. Adding to the additional cost, Liverpool spends at least 12 million pounds on Wiltz every year. The salary of Ekitic, who just signed, is expected to be low. Previously, when Newcastle was chasing him, the players asked for a weekly salary of 200,000-220,000 pounds. Although it is not clear whether this asking price has been insisted on Liverpool, if calculated at the intermediate value and the related costs, Liverpool will have to pay him £12.6 million a year, and the two new players have increased the club's annual salary bill by at least about £25 million. However, in the past four seasons, Liverpool's salary has maintained a healthy proportion of 62%-65%.

Although there were signings like Van Dijk and Allison who were generous in transfer fees in the past, these are special cases for Liverpool. Overall, the Reds are far inferior to their Premier League competitors in terms of transfer expenses. As of the end of the 2023-24 season, Liverpool spent a total of £749.4 million on transfer fees and brokerage fees, making it the seventh most expensive lineup in the world, but far below Chelsea (1.4 billion pounds), Manchester City (1.1 billion pounds), Manchester United (943.9 million pounds) and Arsenal (882.4 million pounds).

Correspondingly, Liverpool's book amortization costs are also much lower than those of Premier League competitors. The club's amortization expenses last year were 114.5 million pounds, more than 20 million pounds less than Tottenham and 75 million pounds less than Chelsea. As the summer window of 2024 is quiet, amortization expenses have hardly increased. This year, spending 100 million pounds to sign Wilz, plus about 10% brokerage fees and the 4% transfer tax stipulated by the Premier League, amortization expenses increased by 21.4 million pounds in the 2025-26 season, and increased by 22.7 million pounds per year since then until the 2029-30 season.

Ekitic's amortization expense increased by £13.4 million in the 2025-26 season, and then increased by £15.7 million per season until the 2029-30 season and about £2.3 million in the 2030-31 season (although he signed a six-year contract, his expenses could only be amortized within five years, according to the Premier League and UEFA regulations). Adding to Flynnon and Kolkz, Liverpool's amortization expense increased by about £54 million per year, almost half of the amortization expenses in the 2023-24 season.

However, the situation this summer does not mean that large signings will become the new normal for Liverpool. Fenway seems to want to use the successful adjustment of the lineup in the past season to make up for the lagging transfer expenses. The club's net transfer expenses were 0 in the 2019-20 season and last season, and in the past five seasons, seven Premier League clubs have surpassed Liverpool in transfer expenses. Given that signing Wilz and Ekitic increased spending by about £63 million a year on wages and amortization, plus Flynn and Kolkz, annual spending increased by £90 million to £100 million, but during a period of substantial increase in club revenue, such a large spending is feasible and will not violate Premier League financial regulations.

Liverpool doesn't need to worry about cash. Even if Fenway is unwilling to make a loan, the club has refinancing a revolving credit line in September last year, increasing the limit from 200 million pounds to 350 million UK. As of the end of May 2024, the club used only 116 million of pounds of 200 million, so there is still sufficient amount to call if needed, so Liverpool may not need to increase borrowing at all. Even without Champions League revenue, Liverpool's cash flow will still be 83.7 million pounds in the 2023-24 season.

Liverpool's huge investment in infrastructure has finally received returns. With the decrease in infrastructure spending, a large amount of funds can be invested in lineup construction. In addition, Liverpool's relatively low spending on transfer fees and willingness to pay more in advance make them far lower than other clubs in terms of unpaid transfer fees. As of the end of May 2024, Liverpool owed only £69.9 million, a figure expected to drop further in the past year. By comparison, Manchester United owed as much as 308.9 million pounds at the end of March 2025.

Excluding additional terms and bonuses, as well as the cost of introducing Flynnpon, Kolkz and Mamadashvili, Liverpool's transfer fees, broker fees, transfer taxes and contracts in Wilz and Ekitic this summer are expected to reach 326.7 million pounds.. Although the amount is high, Liverpool is a wealthy club after all, and they will have some players for sale next.