Liverpool spending big to build on title

Long-term financial discipline has enabled summer spend of £300m that sends out an ominous warning to rivals

- Andy Hunter

Almost £300m worth of talent added to a squad that cruised to the Premier League title last season and Liverpool may not be spent yet. Whatever they're smoking in Boston is having an unusual effect on a global fanbase.

Big-spending Liverpool, blowing competitors from Bayern Munich to Newcastle out of the water with their pulling and spending power, may be a strange reality for supporters who not so long ago sang: "The Reds have got no money, but we'll still win the league." The chant can be retired now that the first part is demonstrably untrue. It always was.

When Hugo Ekitiké completes his move from Eintracht Frankfurt, for a deal that Liverpool would be delighted to reach £79m because it would represent further success at club and individual level, the champions will have made two of the three biggest signings in their history in five weeks.

Fenway Sports Group, Liverpool's Boston-based owner, would have been prepared to break the club's transfer record twice in that timeframe but for Newcastle's insistence that Alexander Isak is not for sale.