Liverpool and FSG transfer reality now clear amid $140m statement and Champions League ‘blow’

“We don’t play in the Champions League and nobody wants to hear it but for a club like Liverpool, it is a massive blow,” Jürgen Klopp outlined in the embargoed section of his pre-Chelsea press conference. “It is not cool. In the world we are living in, with teams with endless resources, no one wants to hear that either but they have and have different circumstances.”

The reality of the here and now for Liverpool, though, is that FSG sanctioned a British record $140m (£110m/€127m) bid for Moisés Caicedo. That does not speak to a club unwilling to go big, despite having spent not far off that much already on Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai.

An unexpected $66m (£52m/€60m) arrived from Saudi Arabia for Fabinho and Jordan Henderson, but the offer for the Ecuadorian is still a bold move that enters a transfer realm that the Reds have never been in before. In fact, it is more than any other British club has spent before on one player