Arsenal and Chelsea set for $230m transfer risk Liverpool and Jürgen Klopp deliberately avoided

No matter how much Liverpool spends this summer, for many supporters, it will not be enough. Alexis Mac Allister has already arrived and more will follow — but the numbers being thrown about at other clubs around the Premier League are staggering.

Mac Allister, according to Fabrizio Romano, cost as little as $45m (£35m/€41m) to sign from Brighton, thanks to a release clause of sorts being inserted into the contract that the Argentine signed prior to winning the World Cup.

By contrast, the rest of the Premier League’s big clubs are going to spend much more significant amounts in the transfer market, with valuations of over $100m now commonplace.

READ MORE: Manchester United is set to find out truth of why Liverpool was right about $110m transfer

READ MORE: Real Madrid told to pay $87m for player Liverpool admires as Chelsea agrees transfer

Newcastle United, according to FC Inter News, has been told it might have to pay as much as $109m (£85m/€100m) for Nicolò Barella, and Harry Kane will cost a similar amount to prise from Spurs, despite him having only 12 months remaining on his deal.

Chelsea, having already spent around $700m in the previous two transfer windows, is pressing ahead with a $102m (£85m/€94m) move for Moisés Caicedo, according to The Telegraph — not far off triple the money needed to get Mac Allister over the line from the same team.

Meanwhile, Arsenal is expected to make an improved offer for Declan Rice, having seen an initial move rejected. That second bid will come close to matching West Ham’s $128m (£100m/€114m) valuation of the midfielder, according to The Guardian.

Jürgen Klopp and Liverpool could have made a similar move themselves had Jude Bellingham proved to be realistic. In the end, he might have chosen Real Madrid regardless, but the Reds felt that they needed multiple signings and could not justify remaining in the conversation for the ex-Borussia Dortmund starlet.

And Klopp has previously dismissed the idea that clubs should spend that much on one player. “The day that this is football, I’m not in a job anymore,” he said in 2016, though the German has since spent big sums on a few stars.

The reality is that football has moved on. Rice might not be worth $128m to many sides, but he very much is to West Ham. Likewise, Brighton is in a position where it can hold out for what it believes it deserves for spotting and then developing Caicedo.

It is, though, still a risk for the clubs willing to fork out sums as big as those. Arsenal, while committing a huge amount to Rice, is also looking at signing Kai Havertz for a substantial fee. Chelsea’s regular huge outlays do not need combing over again.

Does the money set to be splashed represent a big increase in quality for the two sides? Rice and Havertz would be big upgrades for the Gunners, no doubt. But Manchester City would still be firm title favorites. Chelsea, meanwhile, has spent $700m to finish 12th.

Liverpool could match Mac Allister with another reasonably-priced midfielder and spend significantly less than what Arsenal will on Rice, while also bolstering its squad thanks to the addition of two bodies rather than one. That seems a much cleverer move, as good a player as the 24-year-old England international is.

The different strategies set to be undertaken by the clubs chasing to become the title winner next time around are interesting, but Liverpool’s route is no less likely to pay off. Spending smaller sums but getting better value is FSG’s method — but there is no reason to think that it can’t work out.