From ‘mentality monsters’ to millionaires, Liverpool’s transformation in the two years since Jurgen Klopp’s dramatic departure is showing no signs of slowing down.
Overnight, it emerged that the Reds were on the verge of a seismic £120million deal for Bradley Barcola. After weeks of pursuing the Paris Saint-Germain star, an agreement with the Ligue 1 giants has been reached. Barring a sudden late twist, he’ll be strutting his stuff at Anfield this season, charged with the unenviable task of replacing the goals, assists and genius of Mohamed Salah.
Liverpool fans will be delighted with the signing. Barcola is a player capable of the sublime, having helped PSG to three Ligue 1 titles and two Champions League crowns during his spell at the Parc des Princes. With Salah no more, a superstar addition will ease some of the growing discontent among supporters following a lacklustre window so far.
But for all the winger’s trickery and ability, the impending deal signals yet another departure from the Klopp era.
When the German first arrived at Anfield in October 2015, funds were limited.
Brendan Rodgers, his predecessor, had discovered that for himself. While they spent nearly £80m on the likes of Christian Benteke and Roberto Firmino, both Manchester clubs spent more. City landed Kevin De Bruyne, Raheem Sterling and Nicolas Otamendi. United went for a young Memphis Depay, an established Morgan Schneiderlin and a waning Bastian Schweinsteiger. Liverpool didn’t have the financial muscle, or pulling power, to bring in A-listers at that time.
Yet in the years that followed, that supposed disadvantage became Liverpool’s greatest strength.
Rather than inheriting a squad of superstars, Klopp created them. Savvy recruitment off the field paved the way for remarkable success on it.
Sadio Mane was exciting but inconsistent when he arrived from Southampton. Mohamed Salah was remembered by many in England as the winger who had failed to make the grade at Chelsea. Georginio Wijnaldum had just been relegated with Newcastle. But all three, to varying degrees, established themselves as the stuff of Anfield folklore by the time they packed their bags and strolled off into the sunset.
Liverpool are poised to sign Bradley Barcola for a huge £120million
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Then there was Andy Robertson.
Liverpool paid Hull City just £8m for the Scotland international in 2017, shortly after he had suffered relegation from the Premier League. Within two years, he was lifting the Champions League. A year after that, he was a Premier League winner.
Joel Matip arrived for nothing. Trent Alexander-Arnold emerged from the academy. Firmino, signed shortly before Klopp’s appointment, was transformed from a talented attacker into the tireless heartbeat of the entire system.
That was the beauty of Klopp’s Liverpool. Supporters were not simply watching a collection of expensive footballers expected to win.
They were watching players grow, improve and achieve things few initially thought possible, all while competing with a City possessing financial resources beyond anyone’s imagination.
Klopp’s ‘mentality monsters’ were not assembled in a single summer. There were setbacks, defeats and humiliations along the way.
Liverpool saw Andy Robertson and Mohamed Salah become club legends despite arriving for modest transfer fees
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GETTYLiverpool lost the Europa League final to Sevilla in 2016. They were beaten by Real Madrid in the Champions League final two years later. They collected 97 points in the Premier League and still finished second to Manchester City.
But with each and every disappointment, their resolve and desire to win strengthened.
By the time they conquered Europe in Madrid in 2019 and ended the club’s 30-year wait for a league title the following season, Liverpool had truly established themselves among the elite once again after so much time in the wilderness.
It would, of course, be wrong to pretend Klopp achieved everything on a shoestring.
Liverpool smashed the world record for a defender when they paid Southampton £75m for Virgil van Dijk. Months later, Alisson arrived from Roma for a fee of around £65m and briefly became the most expensive goalkeeper in history.
But Van Dijk and Alisson were not expensive ornaments added to an incomplete project. They were the final pieces of a team that had already been carefully constructed over several years.
Liverpool also had the £142m generated by Philippe Coutinho’s move to Barcelona. Their two biggest purchases were broadly offset by selling a player Klopp had helped develop into one of the most valuable in the world by the time he left for the Nou Camp.
What’s happening now feels very different, however.
Florian Wirtz arrived in a deal potentially worth £116m last summer. Alexander Isak followed for a British record £125m.
Now Barcola is set to become Liverpool’s third £100m signing, taking the potential combined cost of the trio to a staggering £361m.
Liverpool duo Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz struggled following their big-money arrivals last summer
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Among the traditional Big Six, only Chelsea can match Liverpool’s collection of nine-figure purchases. The Blues have Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez and, following his move from Aston Villa this summer, Morgan Rogers.
Manchester City have two in Jack Grealish and Elliot Anderson. Arsenal have one in Declan Rice. Manchester United and Tottenham have, still to this date, never paid £100m for a player.
Liverpool, once the club who had to outthink their wealthier rivals, are now outspending nearly all of them.
That does not automatically make the deals bad, though.
Wirtz remains an outstanding talent. Isak has already shown he can score prolifically in the Premier League. Barcola possesses the pace, movement and unpredictability required to terrorise defenders for years to come.
All three could eventually prove worth every penny.
There were mitigating circumstances behind the difficult debut campaigns endured by Wirtz and Isak, too. The Sweden international struggled for fitness and rhythm, while his German team-mate was forced to adapt to the relentless demands of English football during a season of chaos.
But Liverpool still finished fifth, a full 25 points behind champions Arsenal. Arne Slot, a title winner just 12 months earlier, paid for that dramatic decline with his job.
It was a reminder that spending extraordinary sums does not eliminate risk. If anything, it merely increases the pressure when things go wrong.
Klopp’s Liverpool, contrastingly, were special because their success felt organic.
Bradley Barcola recently represented France at the World Cup | GETTY
Supporters could see themselves in Robertson, discarded by Celtic as a teenager before fighting his way back to the top. They admired the relentless running of Mane, the selflessness of Firmino and the refusal of Jordan Henderson to be defined by those who doubted him.
Even Salah, for all his extraordinary ability, arrived with something to prove.
Barcola will arrive with something very different. A £120m price tag and the expectation that he can immediately help fill the enormous attacking void left by one of the greatest players in Liverpool’s history.
There will be little patience; he can be sure of that. Every missed chance will be analysed by the relentless pundits at BBC and Sky, as well as the baying mobs on social media.
But his arrival well and truly shows that the savviness of the Klopp era is no more. Liverpool are going for Galacticos and this drastic shift means added pressure for new boss Andoni Iraola. Get them firing and he’ll last. If he doesn’t, as Slot found out, then it’ll be the Spaniard who pays the price.
