Ryan Gravenberch tries to make his case for Jürgen Klopp’s final games

Liverpool’s £34m young talent demonstrated his calm approach but could be a better fit after German’s departure

We already knew that the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules (PSR) were on the way out – now, we know what might replace them. On Monday, Premier League clubs will vote on a proposed new spending cap system and if 14 of the current 20 sides vote yes, then the top flight’s financial future will be fixed. The problem is that the proposed new rules protect nobody and will achieve next to nothing.

The way the proposed rules will work is that every Premier League team will have an annual maximum spend on their squad – transfer fees, wages, signing bonuses and so on – which will stand at five times the amount of money received from centralised broadcast and commercial revenue streams by the lowest-earning club in the league.

For instance, in the 2022/23 season, the lowest amount earned by any of the 20 teams from those income streams was £103.6m, which went to Southampton. Any club in the league, therefore, would have been allowed to spend up to £518m without risking sanctions.

Because it’s based on centralised revenue, the amount should remain fairly stable and predictable year-on-year – clubs’ independent commercial revenue doesn’t factor in, so there won’t be large differences in the spending cap between years when much less wealthy side like Luton Town play in the Premier League compared to years in which the league is made up entirely of teams with large support bases. This is all about money earned by the Premier League itself and distributed to the clubs.