What Liverpool need to bankroll summer transfer spend is clear after £74m reminder

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This week's Blood Red column assesses the importance of Champions League participation for Liverpool following the release of the club's latest accountsIf Arne Slot or Richard Hughes needed a reinforcement as to the importance of Champions League qualification, the latest Liverpool accounts certainly did that on Friday morning.The figures show a club in rude health, as the Premier League champions hurtled past the £700m barrier for overall revenue for the first time. An after-tax profit of £8m is a significant increase on the loss of £57m, before tax, from the previous campaign.A huge part of Liverpool's healthier financial picture for the accounting period that run up to May 31, 2025, was the upturn in both media revenue (up £60m to £264m) and match-day revenue, which rose by £14m to £116m, to bring about a £74m increase in total.As many as 30 of the Reds' 38 Premier League games were broadcast last season as they swept to the title by 10 points and with four matches to spare, but the major reason for their quite literal turnaround in fortunes has been participation in the revamped and more lucrative European tournament.Liverpool played two more 'group' games in the new-look format in the 2024-25 campaign and topped the 36-team table having won seven successive matches before losing their final fixture, which was a dead-rubber at PSV Eindhoven when Arne Slot made several changes.

Prize money, the additional games and the victories on each match-day all helped boost the coffers.A last-16 tie with eventual winners Paris Saint-Germain was, of course, their 'reward' for topping the enormous table, and while Slot has continued to lament that penalty-shootout loss at Anfield, the European run was said to have earned the club close to £84m.With Liverpool set to meet Galatasaray over two legs this time out for a place in the quarter-finals, the European adventure of 2025/26 will also go a long way towards boosting the figures in next year's set of financial results.It's no secret that the Champions League bounty remains critical for clubs across Europe and the truly eye-watering losses projected at Chelsea this week serve as a stark reminder of how much can be sieved under certain operating models.The Londoners, according to figures from UEFA, were said to have posted losses totalling as much as £355m, which is the second most by a European club of all time, behind only Barcelona's catastrophic 2021, when they emerged, post-COVID, having haemorrhaged a reported £484m.Some have questioned the Reds' after-tax profit of just £8m. However, the overall operating cost of running Liverpool as a modern-day super-club costs £657m and the wage rises are explained, in part, by the sizable bonuses for sweeping to the title last season.Because the club is bound by the strict self-sustainable model, imposed by owners Fenway Sports Group, every pound is put to use and the club washes its own face, so posting tens of millions in 'profit' would essentially indicate that there finances that aren't being put to use at Anfield.But it was interesting recently hearing Slot speak about the summer of 2024 when just Federico Chiesa was brought in for a relative pittance of £10m from Juventus.Slot, until recently at least, had always insisted it was his and Hughes' decision not to restructure the squad significantly due to the quality they inherited from the Jurgen Klopp regime.But the head coach conceded that participation in the inferior Europa League from the season previous effectively resulted in a dent in the transfer kitty.“When I arrived here, we could only sign Federico Chiesa after a Europa League season," Slot said.

"I’m completely aware of that.”Liverpool's chief financial officer Jenny Beacham also referred to last summer's historic and ambitious transfer window when reflecting on the financial figures that were published at 10am on Friday.The £450m outlay, of which around half will be recouped, was the biggest ever at Anfield and was only possible due to positive state the club finds itself in. However, the fact that it was highlighted in the statement hints that the Reds and their owners will invest when funds are available, despite what is sometimes put forward as the prevailing view.“The club does face significant cost challenges, including rises in administrative, staffing and operational costs, alongside the need for us to compete at the highest level of the game, across our men and women’s teams," said Reds chief Beacham.“Since this reporting period we have invested significantly to continue to enhance our playing squads, investing in the club’s present and in its future too."To continue rebuilding the squad at a similar pace, Liverpool will unequivocally have to dine at Europe's top table once more next season.