Football finance expert Kieran Maguire appeared on a recent edition of the Liverpool Echo’s Blood Red podcast to discuss the Reds and during the show, he spent some time discussing Liverpool’s spending and how the Merseyside club’s owners Fenway Sports Group (FSG) “want Liverpool to be independent.”
Last month, Paul Gorst wrote an article for the Liverpool Echo in which he talked about the Reds’ spending in the current transfer window. In that report, he declared that the Reds ‘have been patient in the transfer market’ during the current transfer window and he stated that Liverpool appear to be ‘a club who are committed to balancing the books’ at present.
According to Transfermarkt, the Reds are currently making a profit on their transfer business for the 2020/21 season, with left-back Konstantinos Tsimikas being the only player to have moved to Anfield thus far in the current transfer window.
Maguire discussed the Reds’ spending and shed some light on FSG’s hopes for the club “to effectively be able to self-finance” during this recent edition of the Liverpool Echo’s Blood Red podcast, saying: “As far as the ultimate owners, FSG, are concerned, they want Liverpool to be independent.
“They want the club to effectively be able to self-finance. If we take a look at the last six years, in terms of day-to-day, what happens in terms of money coming in and money going out on a day-to-day basis, Liverpool made £8m in 2014, £7m in 2015, they lost money in 2016 but they had a change of manager during that year and then again, they’ve just broken even in 2017, ‘18 and ‘19.
“So, it does suggest that the owners are not willing to take the approach taken by some other clubs, in terms of racking up huge losses in the pursuit of glory. They’ve tried to do it sort of organically, rather than just through spending money.”
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As can be seen in what Maguire had to say during this recent appearance on the Blood Red podcast, FSG have been running the club with the intention of making a profit or at least breaking even, consistently in recent years and judging by the finance expert’s comments, it appears as though he doesn’t expect the Reds to change this approach any time soon and start “racking up huge losses in the pursuit of glory.”
Time will tell if the club are right to avoid making big losses by spending more conservatively, however, considering that Liverpool have enjoyed plenty of success in recent years, winning the 2018/19 UEFA Champions League and the 2019/20 Premier League, it is difficult to argue that the club should change their approach at present.