Regarding Florian Wirtz’s signing for Liverpool, the UK media, rather bizarrely, discovered the fine print.

The total transfer fee, including performance-related add-ons, breaks the British record.

Journalists take the highest number and run with it because it makes a better story.

But with Wirtz, there was suddenly an effort not to do that; the media got nervous about calling it a record.

That would be fine if there were consistency, but there isn’t.

Just over two years ago, Moisés Caciedo signed for Chelsea under a similar arrangement. His fee only broke the record when performance-related add-ons were included.

But that’s not how it was reported.

The UK’s most prominent soccer broadcaster, Sky Sports, told the world: “Chelsea have signed Brighton midfielder Moisés Caicedo for a British-record fee.”

The Guardian, meanwhile, shouted, “Chelsea complete Moisés Caicedo signing in British record deal.”

Although both titles chose to include the full fee in the headlines for their stories about Wirtz, strangely, neither of them called it a record.

Sky Sports tentatively suggested in its standfirst that “the move could eclipse the previous British-record fee.” At the same time, The Guardian’s first bullet point emphasized that the “midfielder costs an initial £100m [$137 million].”

If the coverage were skewed only on the news pages, that would be one thing, but there has also been a sparse focus on the size of the deal in the features and analysis.

Including his weekly $270,000 salary, the overall package for Wirtz is in the $200 million range.

But the takes have all been optimistic.

Take the Metro, the UK’s most well-read free newspaper. It declared Florian Wirtz

“Liverpool’s future Ballon d’Or winner who could be worth every penny.”

The paper believed the “massive transfer fee for Florian Wirtz is justified.”

Sky Sports’ analysis of the deal was equally fawning.

“Liverpool signing the best in the market shows benefit of buying from a position of strength,” its analysis read.

It added: “Florian Wirtz has joined Liverpool for a club-record fee, but the deal makes sense for the Premier League champions; the German international is world-class, and while their rivals must look for value, they are able to prioritize quality.”

All the analyses may prove correct, and Wirtz will be as valuable as suggested.

But the embarrassing lack of consistency looks biased.

It suggests the media has fallen for the narrative that Liverpool is somehow a spendthrift superpower, contrasting to Chelsea, which blasts the British record fee left, right, and center.

Quite why they’ve failed to scrutinize the Reds to the same extent is anyone’s guess.

I suggest John Henry and FSG take it as a win and give their PR department a pay rise.

They’ve played their part in successfully pushing the story they want to be told to the extent that the British media regurgitates it without prompting.

Let’s not get it wrong. Liverpool’s $150 million signing of Florian Wirtz is the biggest statement of intent by a new defending champion in a generation.

Sure, Manchester City acquired Erling Haaland as they sauntered to the title in 2022 and Chelsea bought Andriy Shevchenko in 2006 after claiming its second Premier League under Jose Mourinho.

But both deals were done by a perennial big spender who’d already defended the title.

Liverpool’s acquisition of Germany’s most exciting prospect will send shockwaves across the division.

Under the leadership of Fenway Sports Group, the club has made expensive moves in the transfer market, such as the $100 million purchase of Virgil Van Dijk.

However, as such deals were always for players on the journey to reach their full potential, they were not established names, and they played into FSG’s brand at Liverpool, which is sensible spending.

As owner John Henry said in 2023, “We continue building at Liverpool Football Club in a responsible manner.

“We’ve seen many football clubs (including LFC previously) go down unsustainable paths. We have and will continue to focus our attention on investing wisely in the transfer market.”

“That has been the case since day one in 2010. Our efforts every day have been and continue to be focused on the long-term health and competitiveness of the club.

“Investment in the club is never for the short term. This approach has been successful over the long haul with patience necessary from time to time.”

Henry advocates this approach so much that he refuses to limit it to his club alone, suggesting the rest of the Premier League be forced to adopt it.

He added: “The league itself is extraordinarily successful and is the greatest football competition in the world, but we’ve thought for some time there should be limits on spending so that the league doesn’t go the way of European leagues where one or two clubs annually have little competition.

However, this summer, it will spend $150 million on one player and add Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong for a further $100 million.

The deal for Wirtz alone is so astronomical that Manchester City and Bayern Munich were perturbed.

“If I’m honest, I don’t know if we could have paid what Liverpool are apparently paying now,” Bayern’s director of sport, Max Eberl, told Sky Germany.

“Florian Wirtz is an outstanding player. We could have imagined signing him. But when a door closes, another opens.”

Spinning a line about money to the media about a particular player after they’ve elected to move somewhere else is an age-old technique in soccer.

But Eberl might want to learn from the PR masters at Liverpool because right now, it’s their story that’s winning.