I agree with benchmarking us vs Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal and Spurs rather than against the sportswashers.
Chelsea, it's too early to tell, but my guess is that the new owners are spending early so as to avoid too much scrutiny from fans. Torres and Mascherano anyone? So it is too early to tell what their real level of spend will be.
Arsenal have spent a fair bit recently, but have a feeling their wage bill is nowhere near ours. Their revenue is a fair bit behind ours though. Not sure whether they've paid for their stadium, but even if they have, there will be upward pressure on their wage bill to keep their squad happy.
Spurs have a big stadium loan to pay back, again revenue, despite increased stadium income, and wage bill are a long way off ours.
Utd. They've burned through most of their cash reserves on various expensive signings and carry a higher wage bill. Their revenues are similar to us now, and they have posted losses for the season just gone. Their share price is also way down. They have to increase revenues from an already high base or they won't be able to carry on spending like they have done. They also need to do some cap ex on the stadium and maybe the training ground.
So where does that leave us? Last accounts show we still owe £70m odd on the main stand and we're told that the Axa and Annie Rd stand are being paid for out of club funds (I don't want to go into the rights and wrongs of that approach in detail) We have had low net spends, but have supported a large wage bill.
The glass half full part of me says that once the 2 latest bits of capex are done, we should be able to sustain substantial levels of investment on wages and transfers. Not as much as Utd have done, which was supported I understand by cash reserves. But it could be similar in the future.
The glass half empty is view is that relative lack of success leads to lower income and then we are told we have to cut our cloth accordingly. The other scenario is that despite higher revenues and lower capex requirements, caution becomes the dominant force.
The big questions for me are whether FSG, post pandemic have been too cautious by making the club finance the ARE and AXA which has left us short of funds to invest when we've needed them. The other is the extent to which Klopp has been focused on main target or nothing, although his comments about risk suggest that maybe he isn't the sticking point. We have had 2 seasons in the last 3 when injuries have left us short in central defence and midfield respectively. We just about got away with the first, but it looks like our luck may run out this season because there looks to be more competition.
The danger is that life doesn't operate in a straight line and that the need for investment may not coincide with the optimum time to spend (from FSGs point of view). A club with our revenue profile should be able to compete with the 4 clubs mentioned, but it's down to FSGs management that we are able to make that claim, because other than Spurs, we have been way behind the other 3 clubs in the past.