Spot on.
No manager can boast about having a perfect record in the transfer market, but just like Spurs when they sold Gareth Bale to Real Madrid, it’s fair to say that Liverpool squandered a large chunk of the €90m that they received – or the expected funds that they based their budget on- from Barcelona for Luis Suarez in 2014.
During that particular transfer window, the following players all moved to Anfield; Rickie Lambert (€5m), Lazar Markovic (€22m), Alberto Moreno (€15m), Dejan Lovren (€22m), Mario Balotelli (€20m).
While Moreno and Lovren still have some admirers at the club, it’s not too critical to say that the aforementioned players won’t exactly be remembered as Liverpool greats.
This being said, Liverpool also brought in Adam Lallana, Emre Can, Roberto Firmino, Nathaniel Clyne, Joe Gomez and James Milner during that particular transfer window – so it wasn’t all bad business.
Much like the Coutinho transfer saga, the Uruguayan’s departure from the club was expected and Jamie Carragher wasn’t too impressed with how the Suarez funds were spent.
After Coutinho’s move was announced, Jürgen Klopp’s statement did stress that the Liverpool owners will make “continued investment” in new players.
While expressing his disappointment that the playmaker has left Anfield, Jamie Carragher has urged the club “to use the money better than we did when Suarez left.”
Disappointed Coutinho has gone, never thought he’d turn into the players he’s become when I first played with him, but he’s been a great @LFC player these last few years. 142 million though! Just need to use the money better than we did when Suarez left!!
— Jamie Carragher (@Carra23) January 6, 2018
Characteristically forthright in his opinion on Liverpool, Carragher certainly seems to be pleased with the club shelling out a world record fee on a defender to bring in Virgil van Dijk. The Dutch defender scored on his debut to beat Everton in the FA Cup, prompting Carragher to change his Twitter profile photo to the new recruit.
It will certainly be interesting to see how they spend the Coutinho money, though, especially considering some of the players they have been linked with (Riyad Mahrez and Thomas Lemar to name but two).
