LIVERPOOL SET ALARM BELLS RINGING ACROSS EUROPE AS CLUBS SPEND BIG ON TRANSFERS TO COMPETE

Back-to-back Champions League finals for Liverpool armed with a vibrant team about to hit their peak has not gone unnoticed by the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus and Manchester City
Antoine Griezmann to Barcelona, Matthijs de Ligt to Juventus and Eden Hazard to Real Madrid are three of the biggest money transfer moves in Europe


Europe's biggest clubs are running scared of Liverpool.

That may sound dramatic - but it is absolutely true.


The Reds have reached back-to-back European Cup finals, winning one of those while the other was lost in unfortunate circumstances that arguably had little to do with just how good Jurgen Klopp's side was.


In 2018, Real Madrid, of course, beat Liverpool 3-1 in the Champions League final in Kiev but Jordan Henderson and co went on a phenomenal run back to the final in Madrid in 2019 - slaying the likes of Barcelona and Bayern Munich on the way - to clinch the trophy against Tottenham.

Reaching the final stage of the biggest competition in club football does not go unnoticed, particularly when you do it twice.Liverpool celebrate their Champions League victory
Reds' success sends alarm bells off across Europe

Barcelona and Lionel Messi went all out in their bid for glory last season while the teams in Madrid, Real and Atletico, thought they had a real shot of winning it in their home city last season.

Serie A champions Juventus with the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo also entered the competition with a swagger and with all PSG's money and talent in Neymar and Mbappe the Ligue 1 giants thought this might be their year too.


The reality for Juventus was an exit at the quarter-final stage of the 2018/19 competition while Real, Atletico and PSG were put to the sword in the round of 16. Liverpool themselves stunned Barcelona by overturning a 3-0 first-leg advantage to win 4-0 at Anfield in the semi-final second-leg and qualify 4-3 on aggregate.Lionel Messi of Barcelona looks dejected after seeing his side concede a fourth goal during the Champions League semi-final second leg match at Liverpool(Image: Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images)

Europe's premier competition signalled a real change in the status quo across the continent last season and set off alarm bells all across the big five leagues.

In the decade that passed before the all-England final in 2019, English teams had qualified for the Champions League final just four times and won on one of those occasions.

Real Madrid, meanwhile, had won the European Cup four times, Barcelona had found success on three occasions and Atletico had been to the competition's showpiece twice. Bayern Munich had also been to three finals - winning one - and Juventus appeared in two.
Fear runs deeper than European success

This is not all just about Champions League bragging rights - the level of fear that the Reds are commanding actually runs much deeper.

Liverpool have beaten some of the undisputed best sides in Europe in the last two year's of Champions League football.

They also pushed a much-vaunted Manchester City side to the brink in the Premier League during the 2018/19 season amassing 97 points to finish second - a runner-up total that has not been bettered by any team throughout the big five leagues in history.

Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp during the Premier League match between Manchester City and Liverpool at the Etihad Stadium on January 3, 2019(Image: Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

And, to be fair, the English top-flight has played a massive part in sending shockwaves across the continent because City won the domestic treble while Chelsea overcame Arsenal in the Europa League final in Baku last term - a competition that has recently seen Spanish sides assert themselves as the dominant force with Sevilla taking the trophy three times in a row between 2014 and 2016, while Atletico were also three-time winners in the previous decade.

The fact that English teams met in both European competitions last season with Liverpool coming out with the highest honour meanwhile competing ferociously for the domestic title proves just why the traditionally dominant forces of Europe should be worried about Klopp's men - and their spending habit in this transfer window proves that they are worried too.
Real MadridZinedine Zidane, Real Madrid manager(Image: Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno/Getty Images)

Real Madrid have gone big.

Chelsea's Eden Hazard arrived at the Bernabeu to the tune of £88.5million while Eintracht Frankfurt frontman Luka Jovic was purchased for a cool £57.7m.

Another forward in Rodrygo from Santos also cost Los Blancos £40m and they've brought in defensive reinforcements too with Ferland Mendy from Lyon and Eder Militao from Porto costing the club £44m a piece.

That is a massive total so far this summer of £274.2million.
Atletico MadridAtletico Madrid's coach Diego Simeone(Image: OSCAR DEL POZO/AFP/Getty Images)

Atletico Madrid have also spent a huge amount of money.

Diego Simeone splashed £113million on relatively unproven teenager and highly-rated forward Joao Felix.

The club have also bought Real midfielder Marcos Llorente for £35.6m and defender Felipe from Porto for £18m.

Three more defenders have also arrived at the Wanda Metrapolitano this summer in the form of Kieran Trippier from Tottenham, Mario Hermoso from Espanyol and Renan Lodi from Athletico Paranaense - who cost £20m, £22.5m and £22.4m respectively.

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Meanwhile they have also signed a deal with Chelsea to bring in forward Alvaro Morata permanently at the end of next season and acquired the services of attacker Ivan Spanojic from Benfica for £6.3m.

This is another huge total of £237.8million spent by Atletico this summer.
BarcelonaBarcelona manager Ernesto Valverde(Image: Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

Barcelona have joined their Spanish opponents by spending copious amounts of cash in this transfer window.

They've signed Antoine Griezmann for £107.6million from Atletico, while also bringing in midfielder Frenkie de Jong from Ajax for £65.3m.

Goalkeeper Neto arrived at Camp Nou for £23.3m from Valencia and there were two more smaller signings in the form of Marc Cucurella from Eibar and Hiroki Abe from Kashima Antlers who cost £3.6m and 1.8m respectively.

That is a total of £201.6million spent by Ernesto Valverde so far in this window.
JuventusJuventus coach Maurizio Sarri

Juventus made a huge statement by signing 19-year-old centre-back Matthijs de Ligt from Ajax on Thursday for a mega £67.8million.

The Bianconeri has also been grabbing every high wage, free agent central-midfielder it can in recent years, beginning with the signing of ex-Red Emre Can last summer, and they've now added former Arsenal man Aaron Ramsey and PSG's Adrien Rabiot to the mix.

Though these players do not cost money as an initial outlay the wage demands are astronomical - Ramsey for example is on a reported basic wage of £400,000 a week.

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The club have also brought in centre-back Cristian Romero for £23.3m from Genoa, spent £20m on left-back Luca Pellegrini from Roma and bought Sassulo central defender Merih Demiral for £16.1m in this transfer window.

They've spent more than £127million on defenders alone so far.
Bayern MunichNiko Kovac, Manager of Bayern Munich

Bayern Munich also spent big on Atletico's Lucas Hernandez with the defender costing the Bundesliga side £68m.

Meanwhile they paid £31.4m for Stuttgart defender Benjamin Pavard and £2.7m on forward Jann-Fiete Arp from Hamburg.

That total amounts to more than £100million in this window.
Borussia Dortmund

Lucien Favre, Borussia Dortmund manager



Dortmund are another club who have invested heavily on transfers this summer.

BVB have brought back centre-back Mats Hummels for £33.8m from Bayern Munich.

The club have also purchased attacker Thorgan Hazard from Borussia Monchenglabach, winger Julian Brandt from Bayer Leverkusen and defender Nico Schulz from Hoffenheim with each player costing £22.5m, £22.1m and £22m respectively.

Jurgen Klopp's former side, who the Reds face in the opening match of pre-season tour in the USA, have spent a total of £100.4million.

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Paris Saint-GermainParis Saint-German manager Thomas Tuchel(Image: Peter Byrne/PA Wire)

Paris Saint-Germain have splurged vast amounts of money over the last two years to bring in Neymar from Barcelona in the 2017/18 season for just shy of £200million and to get Kylian Mbappe from Monaco at the beginning of last term for more than £120million.

It's a huge amount of money but the Ligue 1 giants are not stopping in this transfer window having already bought defender Abdou Diallo from Borussia Dortmund for £28.9m and midfielder Pablo Sarabia for £16.1m while also grabbing Ander Herrera on a free from Manchester United.



They've spent £45million so far and while this may not be the dizzy spending heights of Mbappe and Neymar it still shows the club is not happy with their seeming inability to win the highly-desired Champions League despite total league dominance.
Manchester City and TottenhamMauricio Pochettino and Pep Guardiola watch on(Image: Clive Rose/Getty Images)

They are clubs a little bit closer to home but they have been included because City are desperate to win the Champions League and Spurs have almost ripped up their team and started with a clean slate after losing that final to Liverpool.

Pep Guardiola has spent vast sums of money in recent transfer windows and in similar vein to PSG is not satisfied with not having won the European Cup as midfielder Rodri has arrived for £62.5m from Atletico to replace the ageing Fernandinho and defender Angelino has been brought back for £5.3m from PSV Eindhoven - a total outlay still of almost £70m.

Spurs meanwhile have broken their transfer record to sign Tanguy Ndombele from Lyon for £55.5million while also spending a further £10m on winger Jack Clarke from Leeds at a total of £65.5million - a huge amount for the traditionally low spenders of the Premier League's big six. They have also offloaded Kieran Trippier to Atletico and Danny Rose looks like he could be on the way to Barcelona too as they offset the spending by getting rid of the two full backs who started in the final.




Other factors cause spending fury

It is not only Liverpool's trophy success that has played a huge part in making these major clubs spend and spend again in the transfer market.

The Reds have managed to compete at the highest echelons of European football with an ethos that these teams have seemingly pushed by the wayside - that the collective is better than the one.


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As Louis van Gaal recently said: "Look at Barcelona.

"How many Champions League’s have they won with what they say is the best player in the world?

"Look at Neymar at PSG. How many Champions League trophies won?

"Neymar and Messi, I like them as individual players, not as team players.

"I believe that in collective games there is nothing more important than the team player."

Klopp's men play with an understanding so well put together that it tears teams apart - every player is singing from the same hymn sheet and there is a belief and attitude that anyone can change the game at the club anything is possible.Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp is thrown up in the air by his players during the celebrations following the Champions League final against Tottenham Hotspur(Image: Harriet Lander/Copa/Getty Images)

There has also been an emphasis on youth prospects and young players coming into the club to develop and become stars of the future - think Trent Alexander-Arnold and Joe Gomez to name just two - which means that a lot of the Liverpool squad are hitting or are about to hit their peaks.

Clubs around Europe have put more onus on their star players and in turn become a little bit more predictable while there is an ageing core of talent at a lot of these highly-successful teams which is being moved aside for younger star players in this transfer window to enable them to compete once again.
A future of Liverpool dominance?

Bayern Munich spent just £9m in the 18/19 season on new arrivals while Real spent £27m in 16/17 and £36m the year after.

Clubs were seemingly happy with what they had. Meanwhile, Liverpool brought in a vibrant set of young players and while they may have been successful in the early stages it is now the Reds who are reaping the rewards after allowing their team to bond together.

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There is almost six weeks left for the European clubs to buy players with September 2 being the date when most transfer windows on the continent close, so there may well be more players making big-money moves before the new season gets into full swing.

However, as has been proved countless times throughout the history of football - big money does not always immediately mean big trophies.



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It takes time for players to bed in and patience is not always a virtue the likes of Real Madrid are known for.

So although they may desire to be back at the top of European football next season they may find themselves playing catch up to Liverpool once again.