Would anyone be genuinely excited if our club spent more than we received for Coutinho on a player like Asensio, knowing we likely wouldn't buy anyone else this year, nor much next year? 180 mil is a HUGE investment for a player who isn't an established world class player, and a huge RISK.
Considering for the same combined fee, we could probably buy Amine Harit, Malcom, Leon Bailey, Moses Simon, David Neres, Steven Bergwijn, and Nick Pope, I'd much rather we invest such money in those kinds of players for the next few years.
With our manager and our system (but without the cash of the world's top 5 clubs), we should be developing rotational players to challenge for first team spots, and then sell those who can't (and want first team football) for profit. Clubs like Chelsea and Juventus are great examples of ones that do this well.
We must also recognise that if we have another blinder season or two, it is unlikely we'll be able to keep all our top players like Salah or Firmino on 150-200k when Madrid and Co can offer 300-400k. It's very unlikely we'll inflate our wage budget that high that soon, so we need to be grooming the potential replacements within our system ASAP, or I could totally see us losing 2 or 3 of our best in the next couple of years, and going from challenging for titles back to battling for CL qualification.
So let's be cautious about what we truly wish for please.
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