Liverpool was unable to survey transfer chaos elsewhere with its usual smugness last season. In any other campaign, the goings-on at Chelsea would have prompted a hearty dose of schadenfreude.
Such was the calamitous nature of Todd Boehly’s first full season as an owner, Liverpool still managed to finish seven places and 23 points above an utterly shambolic Chelsea side, one which spent unfathomable amounts in the transfer market only to achieve mid-table mediocrity. But with Jürgen Klopp’s outfit missing the bare minimum target of a Champions League finish, there was no cause for celebration.
There can be no doubt now that Liverpool made a misstep in the transfer market. The midfield was neglected for far too long, and Klopp’s belief that the existing crop could remain competitive for another season proved unfounded. He paid a heavy price.
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But Liverpool has wasted no time in trying to fix the problem this summer. It has got back to the ways that saw FSG considered transfer market kings for a long time, using two release clauses to secure shrewd deals for a pair of the most promising young midfielders around. Those swoops have all the hallmarks of classic business.
After all, this is the organization that brought Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mané, Andy Robertson and plenty more to the club without breaking the bank. When it did spend big, it judged it to perfection, with Virgil van Dijk, Alisson and Fabinho turning challengers into champions of everything. Liverpool may have lost its way, but it has not yet lost its gold-standard status as a benchmark for how to compete in a world of state-backed behemoths.
Chelsea has taken a rather different approach to fixing its problems, and it seems to be centered around throwing ever more cash at the problem. Boehly’s early summer has been dominated by sales, with a mad scramble to get inside Financial Fair Play regulations before June 30, but with recruitment now on the agenda, there are no early signs of lessons learned.
That’s best exemplified by links to Neymar, with Le Parisien claiming a move is under consideration. For all Boehly’s seemingly good intentions, like acquiring a feeder club in Europe and specifically targeting young talent, this persistent desire to attract a marquee name is evidence that the thing he covets most of all is a prestige symbol.
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Simply put, a well-run football club has no business signing Neymar this summer. The 31-year-old has been increasingly beset by injuries, he has progressed beyond his peak years, and he will command an eye-watering salary. Even PSG has finally realized that a team full of flashy superstars will not secure the game’s top honors, but Boehly wants to plow ahead and engineer a reunion with Mauricio Pochettino.
Remarkably, Neymar was actually one of the better pressers in Pochettino’s PSG front line, with neither Kylian Mbappé nor Lionel Messi offering anything at all in that regard. But the former Barcelona man is certainly not the ideal player to make the Argentine’s style of play tick.
“I feel a bit for Chelsea because it’s not going well. I think they’re a top, top team,” Jürgen Klopp told Sky Sports ahead of the Reds’ 4-3 victory over Tottenham in April.
“On the other side, it’s good to see that you cannot just bring top players together and think it just works out — you have to build a team. The guys there obviously underestimated it and gave their coaches nearly an impossible job to do.
“You cannot have two dressing rooms, you cannot train on two pitches, you have to create relationships, you have to create team spirit. That’s the only reason why I’m a little bit happy about it.”
For Liverpool, priority number one is identifying players who fit the system. That comes above all else, global reputation included. Boehly is clearly yet to learn that lesson, and might be about to lead Chelsea into another expensive mistake — FSG and…
Read More: Liverpool still transfer king as Neymar chase could prove Jürgen Klopp right