OPINION: Liverpool can finally hit Man Utd where it hurts as £600m bracket looms

Liverpool could be set to hit Manchester United where it hurts once and for all.

For almost 30 years, United have been the 'richest' team in England, with revenues growing to more than £627million last season.

Liverpool have just published financial details for last season, confirming the £533million in revenues reported by Deloitte at the beginning of the year after the club swept up the Champions League and grabbed a second-placed finish in the league.

While this is a clear £90million plus disparity, the two clubs are moving in opposite directions.

United have said revenues will fall as low as £560million this season, given their appearance in the Europa League. Finishing outside of the top four and dropping out of the competition early will all but confirm this.

Liverpool, meanwhile, are motoring, with the title all but wrapped up.

Europe is a trickier proposition, following last week's 1-0 defeat to Atletico Madrid in the first leg of their Round of 16 first leg clash, but the Reds are certainly more down than out, with the very real prospect of overcoming that deficit at Anfield.

Last season, Liverpool earned a staggering £261million from broadcasting, a £41million increase that meant the club was the first to smash the £250million barrier from broadcasting.

But more importantly, commercial operations saw a £34million bump to £188million.

This matters because broadcasting income by its very nature is fickle; dropping out of the Champions League a stage or two early - or failing to qualify - can shave tens of millions of pounds off a club's top-line.

Even the best clubs can't plan for this. Strange to think that being knocked out by a last-minute winner may mean the difference being securing a top transfer target and not.

United know this well. The club's commercial arm has grown to a £275million operation, the largest in the Premier League by some distance.

But the club are also under pressure to qualify for the Champions League, or see commercial deals slump in value. Two consecutive seasons outside of the Champions League will force adidas to cut its £75million per season agreement by 30%.

Liverpool are in no such quandary.

The club have the foundations to dominate England for years to come, meaning a top four finish should be the minimum expectation after years of battling to become a mainstay in the Champions League.

Next season also brings the long-awaited kit deal with Nike that could provide the platform for Liverpool to move to the next level.

With a much broader global network than current sponsor New Balance, and ambitious marketing plans, Liverpool should see a huge uptick in commercial, which will weather the storm if the club has a patchy season.

Finally, Liverpool can also count on larger revenues from match day, which Manchester United have also used to their advantage over the years, as the 75,000 seats of Old Trafford continued to sell out even as the club foundered in the league.

Having completed expansion work on the Main Stand shortly after the 2016/17 season began, to take the capacity at Anfield to more than 54,000, Liverpool are now in the early stages of expanding the Anfield Road end.

Plans unveiled this month for a £60million redevelopment adding around 7,000 new seats aim to begin work later this year, with completion scheduled for the beginning of the 2022/23 season.

Liverpool earned £84million from match days last season - one of the largest in the country - but this could well shoot up by millions more, especially as the proposed rebuild will bring about 5,200 new general admission seats and a further 1,800 for hospitality.

All told, Liverpool could see revenues jump into the £600million bracket in the 2020s, depending on Champions League form in the next few seasons, and become the richest team in the Premier League.

United, for their own part, are desperate to break back into this exclusive group after years of being the biggest kid in the playground.