On the face of it, £21 million (£29m when you factor in the add-ons) for a 23-year-old, capped nine times, seems a little on the expensive side.
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Roberto Firmino is Liverpool’s second-most expensive signing in history – after Andy Carroll – and also, as testament to the Bundesliga’s frugal nature, is the priciest transfer in German league history.
However, it’s something Premier League clubs are going to have to get used to. Not just in this transfer window but the next eight the latest £5.14bn TV deal covers until 2019. Any English top-flight club will do well to secure any kind of ‘bargain’ purchase this summer as you only have to look at the fees banded around for Harry Kane (£40m), Jack Wilshere (£40m) and Christian Benteke (£32.5m).
Another of those inflated prices, the most of all, is the £50m valuation placed on Raheem Sterling. Firmino’s arrival surely now paves the way for him to exit and sign for Manchester City in what would make him the most expensive under-21-year-old of all time.
And it’s Sterling’s expected departure that changes the perception of the Firmino deal. Liverpool are replacing one incredibly talented forward with another, with £21m left over to spend on further reinforcements (probably Southampton’s Nathaniel Clyne).
This is also a marquee deal the Reds have managed to get done early; no echoes of being gazumped for Alexis Sanchez, Willian, Mohamed Salah or Henrikh Mkhitaryan.
There is a slight irony to it as well, given Firmino is precisely the sort of player Manuel Pellegrini would like at his disposal: technically excellent, young, versatile and with an enticing blend of creativity and goalscoring ability.
However, such has been City’s recent hap-hazard transfer activity, combined with Financial Fair Play regulations and the need to increase their homegrown quota, that they cannot enter the market for Firmino, instead having to look a little closer to the Etihad Stadium.
Welcome to this great club @Roberto_Firmino #YNWA pic.twitter.com/wNNCQQmEUB
— Jordan Henderson (@JHenderson) June 24, 2015
Sterling is three years younger but in terms of first-team football in Europe there is little between them; the England international has 140 games under his belt for club and country, the Brazilian 162. They are not necessarily three years apart in development.
Without getting bogged down by the numbers too much, it’s when you assess their output that bringing in Firmino makes increasing sense as an excellent replacement for a player who no longer wants to be at Anfield.
Sterling has been reinvented from a winger into a central forward but his modest goal return of 23 in 124 appearances – one every 5.4 games – in all competitions means he has some way to go before he can be considered a consistent goalscorer.
Firmino was a No 10 playmaker-type by trade yet over the last 12 months has been pushed increasingly forward, and his return of 49 in 153 – one per 3.1 games – shows why. Just taking the last two seasons in isolation, where the talents of both have come to the fore, is greater: Sterling 21 in 85 – a goal every 4.04 games; Firmino 32 in 73 (one every 2.2 appearances).
Creatively, Sterling recorded 16 assists in 68 league games, across those two seasons; Firmino 21 in 66. It does not take a Harvard graduate or an algorithm to deduce the Brazilian is a fine substitute.
The question of how he’ll adapt to English football does hang over him but with clubs more international in their outlook, acclimatising to different leagues is now far less fraught. Firmino also isn’t what you might consider a sterotypical (if that still exists) Brazilian attacker. His pressing and workrate makes him a fine fit for how Brendan Rodgers wants to play the game and what endears individuals to British fans.
It should be noted as well that he left Brazil when he was just 19, moving 9,500km from the city of Florianopolis (population: 420,000) to Hoffenheim, a small village with just 3,700 inhabitants. He’s been a fish out of water before.
Playing at Liverpool, and as a hyped £29m signing, brings its own pressures but it’s exactly what he needs after a subdued campaign last term, as he performed knowing he was the star of the team.
Hunger is a huge thing in sport, and Firmino should have plenty of appetite to succeed.
