As Liverpool move closer to a rare marquee signing, Man City have already spent £289 million on transfers in 2025 and the main summer window has yet to even open.
The disparity between Man City‘s spending power and the majority of others in the Premier League has never been a secret, with a current squad purchase value of £1.04 billion, as per TransferMarkt.
In 2025 alone they have already confirmed eight new signings for a total of £289 million, first adding Abdukodir Khusanov (£33.5m), Omar Marmoush (£59m), Nico Gonzalez (£50m) and Vitor Reis (£29.6m) in January.
With their participation in the Club World Cup looming, they have since signed Rayan Ait-Nouri (£36.3m), Marcus Bettinelli (undisclosed), Rayan Cherki (£34m) and Tijjani Reijnders (£46.5m) in the space of three days.
They are also close to reaching an agreement to sign Rosenborg midfielder Sverre Nypan, who is to break the transfer record from the Norwegian league – currently stands at €8 million (£6.7m).
So while some are losing their minds over Liverpool spending big on Wirtz, City themselves have already spent £288.9 million in six months, exceeding the squad purchase value of seven topflight clubs from last season.
• READ: What Liverpool and Klopp told Lijnders after joining Man City
Of the eight abovementioned signings by City, five would sit inside Liverpool’s most expensive transfers of all time, underlining the significance and rarity of the outlay for Wirtz.
We all know Liverpool cannot afford to make mistakes in the transfer window, the self-sustaining ways under owners FSG do not allow for it.
For City, they can splash the cash on a player and then replace him in the next window as they have done in 2025 by signing Gonzalez in January and replacing him with Reijnders in the summer.
Let’s not forget Gonzalez was acquired to replace the struggling Matheus Nunes who replaced Kalvin Phillips – the combined price for that lacking midfield trio…£145 million.
Pep Guardiola is allowed to cast aside those who do not make the cut, others in the Premier League cannot afford not to make it work – that’s the difference.
Yes, Liverpool will break the British record for a player when the deal, inclusive of add-ons, is finalised for Wirtz but they can spend big this summer thanks to their success on the pitch and the lack of recent signings.
There is no point scoring to be had over Liverpool signing one player for more than £100 million while City continue to flaunt their endless funds amid over 115 charges of financial breaches.
