Do £100m transfers work? Liverpool hit major hurdle as record deals come under fire

There's something about being a £100million player that just spells danger.

Once the initial fanfare has died down, the expectation sets in and that shirt feels that bit heavier. Obviously, seeing your club spedt a nine figure sum is exciting and manifests a real sense of ambition, which inevitably galvanises a fanbase - at least at the start. But with so many players nowadays moving for fees which are based on potential, rather than a genuine body of work over a decent period, it is no surprise that so many mega-money signings have failed to provide the desired bang for buck over the last decade or so.

Recent evidence shows that the deals which sit in the £50m to £80m bracket often prove more successful; think a Kevin De Bruyne, a Bruno Fernandes or a Virgil van Dijk.

For the few who sit in the expanding nine-figure club, they must embrace a spotlight that they never asked for, but ultimately comes with the territory.

Florian Wirtz is very much a man under pressure right now; he is struggling to regularly impact games for Liverpool with Jamie Carragher now adamant he should not be in the team given his current form.

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In Wirtz's case, it is not to say that the price tag he came with was unfair off the back of what he did at Bayer Leverkusen. The bigger issue was, as mentioned, whether he did it for long enough. Wirtz excelled in a team that won the Bundesliga, but did so off the back of a team embracing the underdog tag. Wirtz enjoyed two truly productive years with his former side and then got his move.

Now working in a different environment, where perhaps the system isn't geared to him as much, and at a club where the expectation is ramped up, Wirtz has found it far tougher to thrive.

There are parallels to Jack Grealish, who up until recently remained Manchester City's record buy following his £100m move from Aston Villa in 2021. He undoubtedly stepped into a bigger environment and was no longer the cog that everything went through. His numbers never came close to justifying his gargantuan fee, with Grealish scoring double figures just once in his career - at Villa.

On the continent, Spanish sides have also fallen foul of spending big on players only to be left short changed. Barcelona made Antoine Griezmann and Philippe Coutinho £100m players years back. Neither delivered in the way the Nou Camp crowd expected, nor did they stay too long.

In 2019, off the back of one season in Benfica's first-team, Atletico Madrid signed Joao Felix for a club-record fee of £113m. He was locked down to a mammoth seven-year deal, but within three seasons he was fifth choice in the pecking order and on the lookout for a new home. Seeing him bounce around clubs before landing in Saudi Arabia suggests the Portuguese star will struggle to become the player he threatened to once be.

Talking of players who never achieve what their potential and price tag suggests, Neymar will likely remain the world's most expensive player for some time. He joined PSG for £200m, which was seen as a major coup, but despite the numbers, accrued largely in Ligue 1, few would argue with any passion that the Brazilian delivered on his fee.

In fact, of the 20 most expensive transfers in history, only one has gone on to win the Champions League at the club they signed for. That being Jack Grealish. Others are either still newly at their latest club, have categorically underdelivered, or simply not got over the line yet. Think the likes of Kylian Mbappe at PSG, Ousmane Demebe at Barcelona, Enzo Fernandez, Alexander Isak or Declan Rice.

Wirtz currently doesn't look like the type of player who will take Liverpool back to the levels they enjoyed under Jurgen Klopp, even if there is a huge amount of goodwill coming from the Kop, determined to see him become a player who can throw his once British record fee in the face of his critics.

He's part of a lavishly assembled attack at Liverpool, which features three player who cost north of £100m. Isak himself has had to face his fair share of criticism. Time will tell on Bradley Barcola after his switch from PSG in the summer.

Perhaps telling about Liverpool's wave of transfer business over the last two summers is that Hugo Ekitike, who cost £79m, is by far the most impressive of their new arrivals.

Of course, it goes without saying that £100m players are often individuals with real talent, and can take just months before you're going "he was worth every penny". Rice certainly looks to be among those in that category.