Cody Gakpo Requests Transfer from Liverpool Amid Slot Dismissal

Cody Gakpo has asked to leave Liverpool, with the winger reported to have submitted a transfer request in the wake of Arne Slot’s dismissal.

The Netherlands international arrived at Anfield in January 2022 for an initial £37m and, on paper, his numbers are strong: 50 goals and 23 assists in 180 games. Last season he produced 15 goal contributions in the Premier League, playing a meaningful part in Liverpool’s title win under Slot in what was the Dutch coach’s first campaign in charge.

This season, the story turned.

Liverpool’s title defence collapsed into a fifth-placed finish, Slot paid with his job, and Gakpo found himself at the centre of a storm. While the team stuttered, a section of the fanbase increasingly turned on him, baffled by Slot’s unwavering faith in the forward ahead of teenage sensation Rio Ngumoha. The boos grew louder. The questions sharper. The patience thinner.

Now, with Slot gone and a new era beginning under Andoni Iraola, Gakpo appears to see no way back.

Dutch outlet Soccernews report that the 25-year-old has formally asked to leave because he “does not see a future at The Reds without Slot”. It is a stark line, but it fits the mood around a player who, for all his output, never quite convinced a critical portion of supporters that he was the long-term answer in Liverpool’s attack.

The situation has quickly attracted interest from abroad. Atletico Madrid are said to be attentive, viewing Gakpo as a potential replacement for Antoine Griezmann, who is leaving for MLS side Orlando City after the end of his contract with the La Liga club. Any deal will not come cheap. Gakpo is currently valued at around €60m (£52m), and the report stresses that “a lot of payment will have to be made” to prise him away from Anfield. But the same sources insist an agreement is “not impossible”.

Inside Liverpool, the mood is pragmatic rather than defensive.

TEAMtalk report that the club are open to selling Gakpo this summer. Slot, they note, was fiercely loyal to the winger, repeatedly selecting him despite scrutiny from pundits and supporters and backing that faith with a lucrative new contract last year worth around £250,000 a week, running to June 2030. With Slot out of the picture and Gakpo asking to go, Liverpool are not expected to stand in his way.

The timing is brutal. Mohamed Salah is also leaving, stripping the squad of its most reliable source of goals and star power. Losing Gakpo in the same window would rip out another major attacking option, yet sources indicate Liverpool are still prepared to sanction his departure.

It points towards a radical reshaping of the forward line.

Back in March, before Salah’s exit became official, transfer specialist Fabrizio Romano warned that the summer would be busy on the flanks at Anfield. “It’s very clear they need to reinforce their wingers,” he said, highlighting the uncertainty around both Salah and Gakpo and stressing that Liverpool needed “something fresh in that position”.

That prediction now hangs over Iraola’s first transfer window. One proven winger has already gone. Another wants out. Liverpool’s hierarchy may be willing to cash in, but the margin for error in rebuilding an attack that only recently powered them to the title is shrinking fast.

If Gakpo gets his move, the question won’t just be where he goes next. It will be whether Liverpool can turn a period of upheaval into the start of a new front line, rather than the unravelling of the old one.