Is there a position above first in the Premier League? Liverpool have pressed ‘go’ on their big transfer machine.
Send your views to theeditor@football365.com; have we got your club’s priority right?
Liverpool’s transfer strategy is…boom
Is there a position above first in the Premier League? Cos that’s where Liverpool will be if they keep this up.
We have never, ever seen transfer action like this, us poor scousers. FSG had always been careful, aka tightwads, with their money. Did John Henry fall off his yacht and bump his head? Did he see Slot as the son he never had? Well, I have the formula and it’s finally done formulating.
It’s Liverpool’s investment model – hodl, hodl, hodl, then boom! Spend big. The first big splurge was across one and a half seasons – Salah, van Dijk, Alisson, Keita, Ox, Fabinho came into a nascent Klopp team. Following that, we won the Champions League in 18/19, the Premier League in 19/20 and had a number of close calls with Pep’s City at their peak. This was followed by a few fallow years, nobody arrived on big money, Nunez was a gift to Klopp more than proper strategy, even the midfield refresh of 23/24 only cost 80mil GBP net spend.
In May 2025, John Henry saw how hot Slot was when he moonwalked the League with zero investment, how the departure of a legend did not lead to the collapse of the club as predicted by 90% of the media and fans and declared, “Here is my story, my dynasty, my legacy.”
And on the seventh day, the heavens opened and gave us Wirtz, Kerkez, Frimpong, Ekitickles, Mama, Salah MK II, Virgil 2.0, and there’re Isak rumblings now to pour fuel into the fire. Same buying strategy, now with added Slot the Leaguewalker. All these signings are young enough to carry Liverpool for the next five seasons with just sub-50 mil spending needed annually for updates.
The future is so beautiful, I wanna marry it. Our owners are strategic, incisive, forward-planning folks and that sets them apart from those at the more-money-than-sense clubs (City, Chelsea), we da best but haven’t won sh*t clubs (Arsenal), the lets-see-what-sticks clubs (Spurs, Man Utd).
It’s time to get very, very excited.
Vinnie Pee
READ: Liverpool 2025 SIXTH in top 10 biggest transfer window spends ever
Is Slot the rich man’s Postecoglou?
So Liverpool have already brought in 2 attack-minded full backs, an attacking midfielder and a striker – with rumours abound that Isak may still arrive.
Meanwhile, in central defence there is van Dijk (great player, but for how much longer), Konate (will probably be sold) and Gomez (will probably be injured). Liverpool have been linked with Guehi, but nothing much has happened for a little while – and another CB is probably needed even if Guehi does come.
If (and that’s a very big if) all of these players gel quickly, Liverpool could be an amazing attacking side this season – but will probably have to be in order to score more than they concede.
So is Slot turning out to be the rich man’s Postecoglou?
Andy
PS. I’d love to know what Klopp’s reaction is to Liverpool suddenly deciding to spend all the money!
So many Isak questions
The Isak to Liverpool speculation throws up many questions and points for discussion.
The Coutinho scenario is one Newcastle fans can embrace, £130/150mil could buy them their own versions of VVD and Alisson and also gives them a lot of PSR scope to enable them to keep adding and build a squad capable of competing every season.
Is Isak using this as a bluff to ensure Newcastle meet his pay demands and will issue an “I never wanted to leave” statement if he gets it. Newcastle say they won’t pay it but if the above happens they’ll just be paying it anyway (yes to two rather than one).
Will LFC manage to move out at least one and maybe two (even three but does Chiesa count?)of the existing squad? realistically even if it’s only one, then with the sad loss of Diogo Jota the forward options in terms of numbers remains the same as I don’t see Wirtz playing as an out and out forward.
Will LFC find another Isak alternative if it doesn’t happen?
How will Slot set up? He talks of “more weapons” and playing more football in the final third, the spectacle of Salah, Isak, Gakpo/Etikite, Wirtz, Szboszlai, Frimpong and Kerkez all bombing in and around the opposition box should be fantastic to watch. Klopp’s heavy metal on steroids.
Will LFC be able to cope with teams who beat the press of these players? City, Arsenal, Chelsea, PSG and Barcelona have all shown excellence to do this.
Should it happen and LFC win the title, will the mailbox and comments be full of “buying the title” nonsense? It would be a bit odd as winning two consecutive titles whilst only spending the same or less than your rivals over those two seasons would be the reality.
Should it happen and LFC don’t win the title, will the mailbox and comments be full of “billion £ bottle job” comments. It would be a bit odd given the level of investment by their rivals also.
Should LFC win every game until Xmas, will Pep call it a day, will Arteta have a P45, will Maresca be given another £1 billion to spend in January? Will TAA be on the phone?
As is always said, football isn’t won on paper and other teams will have a lot to say but on paper it would possibly be the most exciting set of attacking players since Steve Coppell and Gordon Hill!
Howard (my cousin has booked his Champions League final hotel, but he always does!) Jones
Defending Ekitike against F365
So, according to F365 when Man Utd closed a £60m+ deal: ‘Cunha is coming off a superb season for Premier League strugglers Wolves. He has 17 goals and six assists for the club this season in all competitions.’
But Ekitike, according to F365, well his actual goal statistics are ‘not brilliant’ at 22 goals in all competitions. Mediawatch didn’t bother to list the assists when fighting the good fight against ‘propaganda’. I’ll help you out. It was 12.
Now why on earth would you seek to manipulate stats like that?
James Outram, formerly Wirral
(Taking league games only, we see that handily, Matheus Cunha and Hugo Ekitike both scored 15 goals in a similar number of minutes and took a similar number of shots. The difference? Cunha scored 15 goals from an xG of 8.6; Ekitike scored 15 goals from an xG of 21.6. You can be as cynical as you like about xG, but that is stark. As for assists…the score is Ekitike 8, Cunha 6. That’s not stark, particularly when Ekitike was playing with Omar Marmoush for half the season and Cunha was at Wolves playing with Jorgen Strand Larsen. Hope that helps – Ed)
More fanmail (with asterisks added by Ed)
when liverpool won the premier league you c**ts must have been suicidal
you got bent over and your f**king wh*re mothers took it up their ar*es.
Wise Guy
The kids are alright
I know the summer is meant to be spent getting excited for new signings, but one of my favourite things about pre season is getting to see some of the young players coming up through the ranks.
In this space, Arsenal have been blessed of late. Previous seasons have seen the break through of players like Emile Smith Rowe, Reiss Nelson and Bukayo Saka, last season we had Myles Lewis Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri, and this season, we’ve seen the lesser spotted Max Dowman, who many at Arsenal claim is the next Messiah, amongst others.
Many have talked about the massive change Arteta and his mentality has brought to the club, but less is said about Per Mertesacker who since taking over the youth academy, has regularly brought a pipeline of talent into the first team. We’ve been so good, that many other clubs have tried desperately to sign our youth products. We’ve lost many good young players, the likes of Obi Martin, Omari Hutchinson and Ayden Heaven. I think it is a testimony to the man who has helped shaped a new culture in our youth team.
New signings are thrilling, but there is something about a youth product making it big that just hits differently as the kids say. Who are the players we should be looking at other clubs? Who is your club’s next big thing. When football is so much about money, there’s something special about kids who have worked hard and made it through a brutal system where only like 4% ever make the big time.
John Matrix AFC
Gyokeres Chat Ahoy
The Gyokeres reservations are fair and I’m not 100% sold on him. The fee isn’t bad though, £55m is worth the risk. I would’ve thought it would be a lot higher if you had asked me in May and I probably wouldn’t have wanted him. The flat track bully thing is nonsense. He got 15 G/A against Benfica and Porto. They’re CL level teams. He got 4 against Man City last season too. He has done well when against big teams.
“He had two seasons at Brighton in the Premier League where he made 0 appearances. Now, I don’t know about you, but Brighton usually know a player when they see one”
Brighton might know a player but they don’t really know strikers. Their strikers rarely get more than 10 goals a season. It’s consistently been a weak point and it’s been a reason why I used to always get annoyed when people would point out their xG and say “Oh Brighton should be higher actually, look at their xG”. No they shouldn’t because their strikers are usually bad at scoring. Simple as.
The fact he didn’t get into Brighton’s team 5 years ago isn’t really relevant. Football isn’t linear. He reminds me of Diego Costa a lot. Not just because he’s a “late” developer but because he seems absolutely determined to score no matter what. He’s a battering ram.
“But this idea that Arsenal have finally signed that sure thing, last piece of the jigsaw – nope. What they’ve done is taken a very expensive punt, hoping it will come off”
What I really don’t understand is everyone arguing that Arsenal NEED a number 9, an out and out goal scorer. If it’s not Gyokeres then who exactly are you referring to? It can’t be Sesko. Isak isn’t attainable.
I’m not even sure either of them want to go to Arsenal or they would’ve said so a lot earlier. I don’t see the issue with Gyokeres. The fee isn’t half bad for today’s standard. Who is this player that you want Arsenal to sign? Please tell Arteta who he is so we can go out and get him instead. I can’t believe I’ve not noticed this 30 goal a season player, who is proven in the big 5 leagues. Gyokeres is definitely worth the risk.
We don’t usually rely on our #9 to score goals as the goals get spread out although this was a struggle last season which put even more scrutiny on Havertz. We will see how it goes but it’s a fairly sensible signing for a decent price. It gives Arsenal a completely different option and if it goes well it could be a game changer.
Dion Byrne
What’s in a name?
Not sure about the past, Matt Pitt, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Hesh (LFC) is known from now on as The Fish Fister.
Craig Morrison, Athens
…In answer to Matt Pitt I have never been able to hear the name Fabianski without remembering the Flappyhandski moniker after a few bad games in 2010.
James W
…On Matt Pitt’s question as to whether there were some derogatory nicknames that stuck? I’d like to put forward Shitus Shambles. Poor fella.
Shane Tallon, MUFC, Dublin
(Funny, always thought of him as Titf**k Bumbles – Ed)
The Bomb Squad
I just wanted to check if you were aware that you have been using the term “Bomb Squad” incorrectly over the last few articles? The term Bomb Squad applies to a team of people who restore order and calm after carnage. Any incident relating to an explosive device either being found or having detonated. The Bomb Squad are trained to intervene to limit the damage and try to bring back some semblance of normality by dealing with it in a highly professional manner due to very specific training.
Judging by the usage on Football365, it appears that you believe that the Bomb Squad actually create the havoc and chaos. I think terrorist is the term you should be using in these cases. I can only envisage the likes of Garnacho et al adding to the problems of any incendiary devise-related scenario, as opposed to ameliorating it. Almost like bringing a crate of napalm to the metro train that has just burst into flames?
All the best,
Ted the Jambo
(I just wanted to check if you were aware that in football, the term ‘bomb squad’ refers to those who have been bombed out of the main squad – Ed)
