LIVERPOOL and Newcastle have been two of the most prominent clubs in the 2025 summer transfer market, but for contrasting reasons.

Arne Slot’s Premier League champions have pulled off one of the most headline-grabbing transfer windows since any of Chelsea’s recent splurges, making Florian Wirtz their record signing and also adding Hugo Ekitike, Jeremie Frimpong, and Milos Kirkez for considerable fees. And rumour has it they aren't finished yet.

Newcastle’s name, meanwhile, has mostly appeared when other teams have beaten them to signings, including Mohammed Kudus, Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo, and Joao Pedro.

The two clubs have crossed paths in recent weeks, increasing the attention on both. Liverpool beat Newcastle to the signing of Hugo Ekitike, and followed that up by continuing their interest in Toon target-man Alexander Isak.

Amid all this, profit and sustainability rules (PSR) have been blamed for stifling Newcastle, but while PSR does have its issues, it is not the reason for the club’s problems in the transfer market.

Rather than falling out with Liverpool, perhaps Newcastle could learn something from them and put any substantial fees they might receive to good use.

The background to this begins with one of the reasons Fenway Sports Group took over Liverpool in the first place. A sleeping giant of a club was available to take over at a time when there was seemingly a growing desire in football for clubs at the top level to spend within their means via FFP-type rules. 

The American ownership group FSG believed they could use Liverpool’s brand and popularity, while also using data analysis-based recruitment methods learned from their baseball background, to rebuild the club in a self-sustaining manner.

FFP wasn’t applied as stringently as they might have hoped over the years, but they still managed to assemble a team that could at least compete with the riches of Manchester City and other top teams in Europe.

Anfield was rebuilt rather than relocated, and they eventually found a manager who would work well with the data and research going on in the background.

While Jurgen Klopp was something of a one-off, and Newcastle aren’t as large a global brand as Liverpool, they are still a big-name English club with large support and a substantially sized stadium.

There is no reason why Newcastle can’t find managers, as clubs like Brighton, Brentford, and Bournemouth have all done in recent years, who will operate similarly to Klopp and Slot at Liverpool.

While Newcastle might not have been able to entice a manager like Klopp to their club, they would surely have been able to attract someone of Slot’s profile in recent years.

If they think Eddie Howe is that manager, then fair enough. After all, he managed the team to a Champions League qualification place last season. The next thing they need to do, though, and it’s a big thing, is improve their recruitment and become more savvy in the transfer market. Selling players is part of this, as it has been for Liverpool, and as it is for any competent club.

Newcastle’s biggest problems are highlighted by the fact that they don’t currently have a director of football. This is not an ideal situation to be in when your best player might be leaving, and when you might also get unprecedented transfer funds to spend on building a strong squad for the Champions League. It shows the club’s problems lie at a sporting direction level, and in turn at the ownership level.

All clubs will at some point fail in their pursuit of a transfer target. Some of the star players in Liverpool’s recent successful teams were alternatives to their original targets. The key is having plans in place, making sure the targets are right for the club, and there are more than one of them.

Though Liverpool are throwing their weight around this summer, the club have not always been able to act in this manner. Throughout the years, they have had to pick and choose their moments when it comes to spending big.

A lack of spending at times has drawn criticism from some sections of the Liverpool fanbase, but the way the game has gone with FFP and PSR, and the way some clubs have declined in recent years on the back of poor decision-making in the transfer market, there’s a lot to be said for a considered, self-sustaining model, and for not spending beyond your means.

Looking at the total transfer spend of English clubs using data from Transfermarkt, before their spending spree this summer, Liverpool were only the 10th biggest spenders in the Premier League in the last five years, and 12th in the league over the previous three years.

Last season, they signed just one player, Federico Chiesa, which meant there were EFL Championship sides, and even one League One club, who spent more than Liverpool ahead of their Premier League title-winning campaign in Slot’s debut season.

Throughout Klopp’s nine years at Liverpool, the club had the sixth-highest transfer spend in the Premier League, with all five of the other so-called Big Six clubs ahead of them. It is from this sensible and sustainable base that Slot won the league last season, and from which they won all the top trophies under Klopp. It is also the reason they can spend big this season and remain PSR and FFP compliant.

It wasn’t so long ago that Liverpool themselves had to sell the likes of Philippe Coutinho and Luis Suarez to Barcelona, and even after all their recent success and their title win in 2025, they still lost one of their best players, Trent Alexander-Arnold, to Real Madrid this summer.

But any club that has confidence in its sporting processes and recruitment should not be averse to selling players.

Over the past ten years, Liverpool took the money for Coutinho, and other players such as Suarez, Raheem Sterling, Sadio Mane, Fabinho, and, most recently, Jarrell Quansah and put it to good use.

The likes of Quansah and numerous other youth players sold during this time count as pure profit on the books, showing the benefits of a good youth academy as part of this sporting structure.

Early this year, it became clear that Liverpool were facing an important moment in their recent history, and a rare opportunity to build from a position of strength.

It is safe to say they have taken that opportunity and then some this summer.

Meanwhile, Newcastle’s summer transfer window has been notable only for the players they have missed out on, and the Isak saga.

Though there are issues with PSR and the way it is applied, if it is being blamed for Newcastle’s failures in the transfer market, it is an excuse. The truth is, their owners are not running the club well on the recruitment side of things, nor in terms of signing players or hiring the staff to oversee that.

They don’t appear to have a sporting structure or a clear strategy in the transfer market that can capitalise on hosting Champions League football at St James’ Park this season. Again, they don’t even have a director of football.

Newcastle’s transfer window has been much the opposite of Liverpool’s, but even in a world of PSR and FFP, it shouldn't have to be.