Football and finance is an issue so thorny, those who dare delve into it come out of the other side looking like porcupines.

Yet despite that, few topics elicit such a polarising opinion as money, as proved with the reaction to Liverpool’s wage bill in 2015/16.

No splinters from fence sitting, here. Two clear camps formed following the news the club’s wage bill had rocketed up to 25%, passing the £200million mark for the first time.

The first was in support of FSG, who sign the payslips. This is proof of their spending power and their seriousness in making Liverpool a force once more.

The reverse argument focused on bang for their literal buck, a real question mark over how they could facilitate the spending of over £200million on wages, yet finish eighth in the Premier League, albeit with two final appearances to compensate.

Perhaps, with most things in this game, the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

During this period, Liverpool bought nine first-team players. Roberto Firmino, James Milner, Christian Benteke, Danny Ings, Nathaniel Clyne and Marko Grujic were among them.

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They also appointed manager Jurgen Klopp and his backroom staff, as well as giving professional contracts to a dozen Academy players.

Of those acquisitions, only Benteke could be considered a failure, with Firmino, Milner and Clyne proving good investments on the pitch; Klopp and his team, of course, have been a similar success off it.

Success to a degree. Though last season proved to be anomalous, with Leicester’s Premier League win the prime example, one general rule holds true: wages and league position correlate.

In 2014/15, the league’s top six accounted for the top six wage bills. Chelsea, the champions, paid more than anybody else.

Though last season deviated from that slightly, it is damning that Liverpool spent more than Manchester City (£198million) and Arsenal (£195million) on wages, yet finished six and 11 points adrift of them respectively.

Salaries are a curious beast. They have been proven to be as important, if not more, than transfer fees and net spend; yet they are rarely regarded as an opportunity for leverage in the world’s most competitive league.

While discontent, understandable certainly, lingered over the club’s failure to strengthen in January, the deals to secure Philippe Coutinho and Adam Lallana to deals worth over £100,000 a week were ignored; rather, they were regarded as nothing more than a distraction technique, the smoke and mirrors to the window’s wasteland.

Expensive smoke and mirrors, at that. When Liverpool allowed 13 players to leave in the summer, it was not just about allowing them opportunities they deserved elsewhere, but ensuring money wasn’t wasted on players who won’t feature.

£200million is a lot of expenditure. That, in part, should be recognised.

But just as if the same amount had been spent on transfer fees followed by an eighth place finish, criticism is deserved. Money spent on wages is not as sexy as transfers, nobody will salivate over a £10million a year salary compared to a £25million transfer fee, but that does not make it any less real.

There is mitigation to these figures, of course. The club now have more employees on their books than ever before; they reached two cup finals and played 63 games, an expensive campaign in an era of incentivised contracts.

But for £200million, Liverpool should expect more. This season, they are getting it, having spent a large part of the season in the top four. The deals for Lallana and Coutinho, plus big wages paid out on Sadio Mane, Gini Wijnaldum and Joel Matip, should see them hover around a similar outlay.

Champions League qualification would justify that, at least.

Like much of FSG’s reign though, a caveat. Damned if they do, hysteria if they don’t.

While their gestures cannot be questioned, their implementation should be. If Liverpool are paying big to their players, it’s time to pay back with the tangible success of a trophy, Champions League football, or both.