here. - It's Liverpool

FOOTBALL is big business and when thesummer transfer window closed on August31, Premier League clubs had spent a record£630m. On deadline day alone, spending was upby £30m on the 2012 figure - with £140m spent.Further, during the window, the top-flight clubs’net transfer spend was also a new recordat £400m.Since the introduction of the transfer windowsystem by FIFA during the 2002–03 seasongross player transfer spending has exceeded aneye-watering £5.3bn.We like to think of ourselvesas the world’s greatestfootball familyIt almost goes without saying that football is bigbusiness in the city of Liverpool too - a seriousbusiness – the most successful footballing city inEngland and a massive global brand despite thetop flight trophy not having been paraded aroundthe city’s streets since 1990.Liverpool FC played its own part over thesummer, reams were written on the Suarezsaga and the club spent £44.8m on players andgenerated £28.15m in selling others on. Butwhat sum is enough to land the honour thathas eluded the club for more than two decades,especially in the era of the overseas oligarch?Ian Ayre, born in Liverpool with football allegiancepassed down from his father, landed the top jobas Managing Director in 2011, having previouslybeen the club’s Commercial Director. He says it’snot all about cold hard cash: “For all their money31