‘Players will leave for 500m!’ - Bradley Barcola’s £123m transfer to Liverpool concerns former France international Bacary Sagna as ‘this has to stop’ warning is sounded

The classy full-back, who also spent time with Manchester City in his playing days, has been assessing another busy window that saw huge sums of money splashed out by teams in the English top-flight.

More records have been broken by the likes of Morgan Rogers and Enzo Fernandez - with Chelsea figuring prominently in big business there - while Champions League winner Barcola has become another lavish addition at Anfield.

Liverpool have invested heavily over the course of the last 12 months, with the likes of Chelsea, City, Tottenham and Arsenal doing likewise. Fees continue to rise across the board, which leads to price hikes for loyal supporters, and Sagna fears the game may be heading in a worrying direction.

Asked about Barcola’s move to England and whether Arsenal walked away after determining that a nine-figure price tag could not be justified, Sagna - speaking in association with BetVictor Online Casino - told GOAL: “Barcola is an amazing player but he's young, he's 24 now, he has proven himself at Paris and in Lyon previously but this has to stop.

“He went for 123 million, no? That's a lot of money if he's evaluated now. I know that we can't compare generations and I know the world is moving and economically it's not the same. Proportionally, yes it makes sense because you sell other players for 100 million and he's better than them, but it doesn't make sense.

“They should have limit. For me it doesn't remove anything on his quality, he's a top player and I think he's going to be good at Liverpool, but for me this is crazy, this is 123 million. They should have a limit and they should set up a limit because in five years what's going to happen? Players will leave for 500 million?”

Sagna went on to say of the issues that professional football has been facing of late, with FIFA making plenty of unfortunate headlines: “You know it's football, a business, it's good football became a business but any business going high also has its bad side and danger.

“So to regulate football rules and football financial rules you have to be very smart because soon something like we saw with FIFA trying to sell the World Cup will happen and I'm not surprised. I'm not surprised because there is no limit, there is no financial rules anymore. Any player can leave for any kind of money.

“There have to be rules and roots. When you were educated, you have 60 per cent from when you are little, you were grounded in that, and then of course you will develop yourself on the other 40. Football has to be the same.

“The basics will never change if you start touching the most important things and you get trouble. When I see all the problems with FIFA being attacked by everyone, I'm not surprised. And this is the same for players.

“Soon you will have players complaining and clubs complaining and clubs being out of the financial fair play, so top clubs will control it and you'll have to bring other clubs that are not going to have the same quality. The image rights will be damaged because if you don't have the same quality, then you don't have the same money, and when you start going down that path it is difficult to stop. We need to be careful.”

There appears to be little chance of Premier League teams reining in their spending any time soon, with the rewards of trophy challenges at home and abroad remaining too tempting - and lucrative - to ignore.

It remains to be seen whether Barcola can justify the faith and funds shown in him - with the likes of Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak having struggled to deliver on their respective price tags with the Reds - and records will continue to fall as clubs chase the dream while dipping into the deepest of pockets.