Liverpool Must Use Potential Investment to Plot for Long Term Under Jurgen Klopp

Emerging in the immediate aftermath of Liverpool's 2-0 defeat away to Burnley on Saturday afternoon, reports of possible investment from a Chinese consortium served to highlight the bigger picture on Merseyside once more.

Sky News reported interest from state-backed group Chinese Everbright, who were looking to secure a stake in the club from current owner Fenway Sports Group:

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Everbright, a financial services conglomerate, parts of which are listed on the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges, is working with PCP Capital Partners, an investment and advisory firm, on plans to acquire a substantial shareholding in Liverpool alongside Fenway Sports Group.

Insiders said on Saturday that their proposals were not yet finalised but added that the consortium could also include investment from other Chinese state-owned parties.

Silk Road Finance Corp, an investment firm whose directors include John Thornton, a former Goldman Sachs and HSBC director, is also thought to be involved in the consortium's discussions.

Sources said that any investment was likely to be structured as a joint venture or partnership rather than an outright takeover.

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This was corroborated on Sunday night, when the Daily Express' Paul Joyce reported that Everbright "value the club in excess of £800 million," though he stressed "there has been no bid as yet and the process is in the early stages."

FSG figurehead Tom Werner had previously told the Liverpool Echo's James Pearce that the club is "not for sale," but later added that "under the right conditions and absolutely with the right partner, we could look at some small investment stake in the club."

With talks ongoing over naming rights for Anfield's new main stand, suggestions that outside investment could see a stake in the club change hands are feasible—but the question of where the money would be directed remains to be seen, as manager Jurgen Klopp seems content with building for success on a tight budget.

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So far this summer, the German has added seven new players to his Liverpool squad, while a host of others have left the club on permanent and temporary deals.

Marko Grujic, a January signing who spent the rest of 2015/16 on loan with Red Star Belgrade, has linked up with his Reds team-mates for the new campaign, joined by six summer additions in Alex Manninger, Loris Karius, Joel Matip, Ragnar Klavan, Georginio Wijnaldum and Sadio Mane.

Wijnaldum and Mane represent the most significant portion of Klopp's pre-season outlay, with their moves from Newcastle United and Southampton, respectively, totalling £55 million, while Klavan (from Augsburg) and Karius (from Mainz 05) were acquired for a combined £8.9 million.

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Manninger and Matip arrived on free transfers, after their contracts with Augsburg and Schalke 04 expired in July, though Liverpool are likely to have paid a sizeable signing-on fee for the latter.

Klopp's six summer signings mean Liverpool have paid clubs £63.9 million so far, with further additions possible before the transfer window closes on August 31—but, remarkably, they have still made a profit.

These purchases were largely covered by three high-profile departures, with Christian Benteke's £32 million move to Crystal Palace on Saturday ensuring Liverpool were out of the red at this stage, as the Belgian joined Joe Allen (£13 million, to Stoke City) and Jordon Ibe (£15 million, to Bournemouth) through the exit.

So far this summer, Liverpool have seen 10 players who were in and around the first team last season leave the club in permanent deals:

• Christian Benteke, to Crystal Palace: £32 million
• Jordon Ibe, to Bournemouth: £15 million
• Joe Allen, to Stoke City: £13 million
• Brad Smith, to Bournemouth: £6 million
• Martin Skrtel, to Fenerbahce: £5.5 million
• Sergi Canos, to Norwich City: £4.5 million
• Jerome Sinclair, to Watford: £4 million, compensation fee
• Jordan Rossiter, to Rangers: £250,000, compensation fee
• Joao Carlos Teixeira, to FC Porto: £250,000, compensation fee
• Kolo Toure, to Celtic: free

Total: £80.5 million

(Full transfer fees subject to various add-on clauses.)

As a result, Liverpool have made a profit of £16.6 million this summer—close to the fee top-four rivals Tottenham Hotspur paid to sign striker Vincent Janssen from AZ Alkmaar—and this aligns with Klopp's comment in February that he would "not be trying to sign players just for the sake of it and because we have money."

That Klopp has remoulded his squad—injecting quality into a number of key areas and shifting some big-name deadwood in the process—should be lauded, and it seems unlikely his approach will change dramatically before August 31.

Therefore, with the German comfortable working in the black in the transfer market, potential investment would likely be channelled elsewhere—and as Werner stressed in an interview with Pearce, Klopp is the focus.

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"I don’t think that we could have made a long-term arrangement with Jurgen without an understanding on both sides about our future together," Werner said when asked about the possibility of selling the club, referencing perhaps the most important deal made ahead of 2016/17.

In July, Klopp signed a new six-year contract with the Reds, along with assistants Zeljko Buvac and Peter Krawietz, in a move that went some way to securing the long-term future of Liverpool under their esteemed manager.

Werner and his fellow FSG partners, John W. Henry and Mike Gordon, highlighted the 49-year-old's "commitment to overall improvement and development" in a joint statement released on the news of Klopp's extension:

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In Jurgen we have someone who is always looking ahead, always looking beyond his own wants and needs and putting the club first.

The ideas and plans he has for the football infrastructure excite us and we believe it benefits the organisation to have Jurgen committed to Liverpool for a sustained period, to make sure he is here to oversee this development. By making this commitment to him, we are taking away any future distractions or doubt. We will move forward in partnership together, with confidence in each other and with the club’s future at the forefront of every decision.

He is a world-class managerial talent and his leadership will be critical to everything we hope to achieve in the years ahead.

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FSG's underlining of Klopp's plans "for the football infrastructure" stands as the most salient point here, with the German looking to foster a legacy during his time as Liverpool manager—even telling German publication Stern (h/t ESPN FC) this month that he would be satisfied with the Reds being his final club.

With Klopp looking to remain in the black as he shapes his squad for the future, Liverpool's plans for potential investment should look to secure sustainable success off the pitch.

One such focus, therefore, should be in Klopp's plan to combine the club's Melwood training facility with its academy setup in Kirkby, as he told reporters following Liverpool's 1-0 victory over Tranmere Rovers in pre-season.

"We need to develop a lot of things," he said. "We’re already building a new stand, we’re thinking about bringing the academy and Melwood together, things like this. We think about everything at the club and this is much longer-term than my contract."

This is far from a new idea, of course, and Liverpool chief executive Ian Ayre said in 2013 that "there is definitely more value in having everyone together," per David Prentice of the Liverpool Echo.

The appointment of Pepijn Lijnders as first-team development coach, overseeing the transition of the Reds' best young players from the academy to the senior squad, is a marker that Liverpool are moving in the right direction on this front.

But the prospect of Adam Phillips, Yan Dhanda, Brooks Lennon and their fellow youngsters operating in the same facility as James Milner, Daniel Sturridge and Nathaniel Clyne is an important one, as Klopp looks to blur the lines between the academy and the first team—and ploughing funds into this is crucial. 

The prospect of self-sustenance is one that FSG will be trying to achieve, and as with their substantial backing of Klopp in terms of his new contract, it is clear that in order to do so, they will first need to spend.

Plans to redevelop Anfield's main stand, and elements of its interior and exterior facilities, have moved forward at a rapid rate over the summer, with Liverpool set to hold their first home game of the season against Leicester City on September 10.

This will mark the successful completion of phase one of FSG's plans for the stadium, but as they seek further investment in terms of naming rights for the main stand, as well as the sale of a potential stake in the club to Everbright, they should push ahead with phase two: expanding the Anfield Road end.

"The 60,000 capacity as a construction cost feels like the right solution to be able to be sustainable and build the business from, so in that regard that is why we feel that is the right number," Ayre told reporters in 2014.

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This comes in reference to plans to build on the current redevelopment of the main stand—which will lift Anfield's capacity to 54,167—by adding a further 5,000 seats in the Anfield Road end with planning applications already submitted to the Liverpool City Council.

If FSG move forward with these plans, Anfield's capacity would be in line with Arsenal's Emirates Stadium and West Ham United's newly occupied London Stadium, leaving them behind only Wembley Stadium and Manchester United's Old Trafford.

With Ayre set to leave the club on the expiry of his contract next summer, the 53-year-old could look to build on his legacy as Liverpool's CEO.

If an agreement with Everbright is secured, this should come through funnelling their investment into backing Klopp in terms of "the football infrastructure," both in combining the first-team and academy training facilities and continuing with plans to expand Anfield.

Liverpool already have the right man in the dugout in Klopp, now they must give him the stability required off the pitch—and investment from the Far East could prove to be catalyst toward further positive change.

Jack Lusby will be covering Liverpool throughout 2016/17 as one of Bleacher Report's lead correspondents. Follow him on Twitter @jacklusby_ and Facebook here.