3 ways Liverpool could afford Thiago
2020 has brought a great deal of uncertainty to the world and football is certainly not exempt from uncertainty. Loss of revenue and lack of clarity on how the future of football will look leave clubs in a precarious position in the transfer market.
In April, Liverpool were forced to do a U-turn following an outpouring of anger from fans over the announcement that the club would be furloughing staff.
Although the right decision, a decision that set a precedent for other clubs to follow soon after, it did nothing to help keep Liverpool’s healthy financial forecast on track.
This has meant that the club has had to operate a cautious policy going into the 2020 summer transfer window.
Moreover, Liverpool are reigning English, European and World Club champions and so manager Jurgen Klopp won’t be desperate to make any blockbuster signings any time soon either.
However, with the departures of Dejan Lovren and Adam Lallana there are certain areas of the squad that need to be filled, and with the added saving of their wage bill there are still opportunities to buy the right players to improve the squad.
One of these players, whose transfer rumour to Liverpool just won’t go away, is Thiago Alcantara, who impressed during Bayern’s 4-1 drubbing of Chelsea in the Champions League earlier this week.
Bayern are reportedly after €30 million for the Spanish midfielder, a fee Liverpool are seemingly currently unwilling to meet.
Embed from Getty ImagesHere are three ways Liverpool could sign Thiago this summer:
1. Sell Fringe Players
Liverpool’s starting XI has remained almost unchanged for the last two years, with only the attacking midfield areas being rotated on any sort of regular basis.
This means chances of first team football are low for Liverpool’s fringe players, such as, Divock Origi, Xherdan Shaqiri, as well as midfielders Harry Wilson and Marco Grujic who are returning from loan spells.
The Express reported in May that Liverpool would be demanding at least £20 million for both Wilson and Grujic after successful loan spells and Bournemouth and Hertha Berlin, respectively, returning a potential outlay of £40 million.
2. Pay the Money!
The second option seems a non-starter given reports suggesting Liverpool are forecast to lose between £70 and £200 million, as a result of TV broadcasting rebates and loss of match day revenue, but is it so ridiculous?
Since 2015, Klopp’s first season in charge, Liverpool have a net spend of only £108 million. To put that in perspective, Manchester City have spent £602 million and even the likes of Aston Villa have spent £167 million in the same time.
This figure may have gone unnoticed given Liverpool’s incredible success over the past year, however should not be ignored.
On one hand, maybe this is how Klopp prefers to do business and knows that his management skills alone are capable of turning a £10 million player into a £50 million player seemingly overnight.
On the other hand, maybe Klopp, given the chance, would bite FSG’s hands off if he was given a bumper kitty to bring the likes of Jadon Sancho, Kylian Mbappe or Kevin De Bruyne to the club.
If the latter, it makes Klopp’s achievement over the past 5 years even more impressive having only been given an average of £20 million per year to spend on transfers after player sales.
Alas, we are not talking about Sancho, Mbappe or De Bruyne, we’re talking about Thiago, an established world class player only just past his prime years available to Liverpool for a measly £26.97 million.
Surely, that is a palatable figure by the LFC board? Only time will tell.
3. Check Your Pockets
The third option may be unconventional but it appears that the rumours have got fans hopes up so much, they have taken matters into their own hands.
One fan has suggested a simple whip around from the 27 million Instagram followers Liverpool have:
Lowest Bayern will let Thiago go for is 27 million?
— Big Jurgen (@BradLFC_) August 8, 2020
LFC have 27 million followers on Instagram
We can fund this ourselves lads
Another fan has even put together a Go Fund Me page to raise the £27 million needed:
Whatever happens, there is no doubt Thiago would bring some real creativity into midfield that we have lacked since Coutinho left for Barcelona.
Let’s hope Mike from Newbury gets the £27 million he’s asking for, we’re rooting for you!
