It makes more sense than selling, then spending and hoping to rebuild equal or better - at least you get a season to bed in new signings in combination with the top class player you expect to sell (and the chance to win something with what amounts to 120% of the squad strength you can really afford). Its a gamble, though. They'd have been fucked previously if Suarez, Coutinho, or soon Salah fucked their knee or something equally disastrous....then you're staring at a big hole in your budget and years of reduced spending to patch it.
Guess it comes down to the amount of risk you're willing to tolerate.
Indeed. Also noting where respective risks lie and how you're pre-pared to counter-balance them.....
I guess what I had in mind was the phenomena where if you sell big and THEN spend, selling clubs typically take note and hike their prices accordingly. Plus, I guess it's hard to argue that on a playing level 'replacement in first' doesn't prevail in terms of sound contingency. Imagine; getting caught short at the end of a trf window.... Yikes.