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Over the last three years, the following Premier League teams have spent more money on transfer fees than Liverpool: Chelsea, both Manchester clubs, Tottenham, Arsenal, West Ham United, Brighton & Hove Albion, Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest, Newcastle and Wolverhampton Wanderers.

And if we look at net transfer spend (acquisitions minus departures) over that same stretch, then Chelsea, Man United, Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal, Bournemouth, Forest, Newcastle, West Ham and Man City are all ahead of Liverpool.

So, the club itself has literal money to spend and then they've also built up a massive buffer against the Premier League's profit and sustainability regulations (PSR), which essentially allow clubs to lose €120 million over a rolling three-year period.

Amazingly, in an era where most soccer clubs don't make money, Liverpool are expected to end the financial year during which they won the Premier League with a profit.

There are also millions in bonus money for winning the league and millions more from a return to the Champions League.

On top of that, the team just signed a new sponsorship deal with Adidas starting this season, so that should add even more revenue and wiggle room for spending.

Per the site FBref, the team's average age weighted by minutes played in the Premier League was 27.7 -- the fourth-oldest mark in the league.

Players typically peak between the years of 24 and 28, so this meant that Liverpool had a team of players who were all playing at their best at the same time.

Andy Robertson and Alexander-Arnold are the two best attacking fullbacks in Premier League history, but one of them is 31 and frequently struggled last season, while the other one decided he wanted to get paid more money by a different team in another country.

Along with 22-year-old Conor Bradley, this is who the club is betting on to be the starting fullbacks for Liverpool's next great team.

With the record outlay for Wirtz, I think the right way to look at him is basically as the team's short-term TAA replacement (creativity) and the long-term Salah replacement: a do-everything superstar who you can build your attack around.

This chart combines the expected goals (combined quantity and quality of your shots) with the expected possession value (how much everything else you do increases your team's chances of scoring) for all 22-and-under players across Europe's Big Five top leagues since the start of the 2023-24 season.

He's so good already -- and potentially so great in the future -- that if you can sign him, you do it. And this is apparently what happened. Liverpool didn't sign Wirtz because he played the right position for their roster; they signed him because Liverpool rarely get to sign 22-year-olds who are already superstars. These players, Jude Bellingham, Kylian Mbappé, Erling Haaland, usually go to Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, or Manchester City.

Liverpool had never spent this much money on a player before, but that's not because they didn't want to. Rather, it's because the handful of players they deemed worthy of those fees ultimately weren't interested in joining the club. But because of dysfunction at Bayern Munich and the individual circumstances at those richer clubs this summer, Liverpool had the opportunity to acquire the best young player on the market, and they jumped on it immediately.

While Wirtz can play at the top of a midfield or as part of a front three, the club remains somewhat thin up top. Díaz, Cody Gakpo, and Núñez were all signed as part of a process of rebuilding the attacking line, but they're all acquisitions from an era when the coaching staff was heavily influencing recruiting.

Signed at 25, Díaz was older than most Liverpool signings. He's been an effective and important player, but he's almost through his prime years already. Gakpo has been an effective sometimes-starter but has never played a heavy minutes load. And while Núñez's attacking production has been fantastic on a per-minute basis, he's played fewer than half of the available minutes since joining the club. Unfortunately, the tragic death of Diogo Jota has to be included here, too.

Without Jota and with Díaz and potentially Núñez also leaving, that leaves Salah and Gakpo among attackers who played meaningful minutes last season. Jota, Díaz and Núñez played pretty much all of the available center-forward minutes last season, too. So, that helps explain the acquisition of the low-floor-high-ceiling Ekitike, who played primarily as a center forward in Germany.

And maybe -- maybe -- it helps explain Liverpool's continued pursuit of Isak. But this is where I start to get a little confused. Ekitike and Isak are strikingly similar players. They both can play on the wing -- and they both love to peel off into the left channel -- but I don't think either one maintains the value their transfer fees suggest if they're primarily playing on the wing. Although the fee was expensive, Ekitike still felt like a classic Liverpool signing: a young player with a world-class data profile who at least has some characteristics that suggest positive regression is in his future.

Turning 26 this fall, Isak is right on the edge of the age range of players Liverpool usually sign. His value will never be higher, and there's still a good deal of risk associated with the move. He's only played 2,500 domestic minutes in a season one time -- and that was this past season.

At the very least, it's interesting and confusing that Liverpool just won the Premier League with an elite attack that frequently didn't feature a traditional center forward -- and now they're potentially spending more than €200 million on two traditional center forwards. At best, it feels somewhat redundant; even if they're both great, then can they really be great together? Why not a left winger and a striker? At worst, it feels misguided.

With the departure of Quansah, the only non-makeshift center back depth behind Van Dijk and Ibrahima Konaté is Joe Gomez, who is A) always injured, and B) currently injured.
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