Liverpool's Summer Rebuild: Big Decisions Ahead
The clock is ticking on Liverpool’s summer rebuild. The Premier League kicks off in days, the window shuts on September 1 at 11pm, and Anfield still feels like a club mid-surgery rather than one fully stitched up.
Last summer’s £450million splurge and £225m recouped in sales was never going to be repeated. The spending has cooled. The questions haven’t. Andoni Iraola has already made it clear: this squad needs work if Liverpool are to trouble the elite again.
Big names gone, big decisions looming
The summer exodus began with a jolt. Mohamed Salah, Andy Robertson and Ibrahima Konate all walked away on free transfers at the end of last season, taking with them a vast chunk of experience and dressing-room weight. Academy products Rhys Williams and James Balagizi followed them out of the door, also at the end of their deals.
Only one senior player has actually brought in a fee so far. Luca Stephenson joined Championship new boys Bolton Wanderers for around £700,000. Another midfielder, Tommy Pilling, has headed to Slovakia with MFK Zemplin Michalovce.
The departures column may not stay that quiet.
Curtis Jones sits at the centre of mounting speculation. Inter Milan remain keen, Galatasaray have tracked him before, and Liverpool want more than £30m for a player out of contract next summer. Harvey Elliott is in the same contractual position, with Sunderland and Leeds United both linked as they weigh up attacking midfield options.
They are not alone in entering the final year of their deals. Joe Gomez, Wataru Endo, Kostas Tsimikas, Stefan Bajcetic, Virgil van Dijk, Calvin Ramsay and Alisson Becker are all inside the last 12 months. Ramsay and Bajcetic could be allowed out on loan to accelerate their development. The rest, Iraola expects to lean on heavily this season.
Alexis Mac Allister, whose contract runs for another two years, has been the subject of whispers for months, but that noise has faded since his return to the AXA Training Centre after the World Cup. Cody Gakpo remains a long-term target for Tottenham Hotspur, yet Spurs have not turned that admiration into a formal bid.
Academy traffic: exits, loans and auditions
Below the first team, Liverpool are reshaping the pathway for a cluster of youngsters.
Midfielder James McConnell is close to a loan move to Championship side Preston North End. Ifeanyi Ndukwe, the 18-year-old centre-back who impressed in pre-season after a £2.6m switch from Austria Vienna, cannot feature competitively for Liverpool this year and has drawn loan interest from clubs in Denmark, Portugal, Spain, Belgium and France.
Lewis Koumas is expected to attract both loan and permanent offers. He was on the brink of joining Craig Bellamy at Burnley before the collapse of Bellamy’s move to Turf Moor changed the picture.
Keyrol Figueroa has League One and League Two suitors. Barnsley are among the clubs tracking him, with Salford City and Shrewsbury Town also in the mix. Liverpool also anticipate strong demand for Jayden Danns once he returns to fitness later this month. Goalkeeper Kornel Misciur, another 18-year-old, has drawn interest from several non-league sides.
Some deals are already done. Armin Pecsi will spend the season in Austria with TSV Hartberg. Midfielder Kyle Kelly has joined National League outfit Forest Green Rovers. Defender Amara Nallo is in Finland for the rest of the year with HJK Helsinki.
The conveyor belt is moving. The question is how much of it feeds back into Iraola’s first team and how much simply clears space for new arrivals.
Iraola’s rebuild: steel at the back, star power out wide?
The incoming business has been targeted rather than flashy.
Victor Munoz arrived in June after Liverpool activated his £34.5m release clause at Osasuna, adding energy and bite. Earlier in the year, the club agreed a £60m deal with Rennes for 21-year-old centre-back Jeremy Jacquet, who has now officially completed his move.
When Iraola underlined how thin Liverpool looked defensively, the club responded. Barcelona captain Ronald Araujo has joined on a season-long loan with an option to buy set at £47m, a statement addition at the heart of the back line.
The next priority sits further forward. Liverpool want a winger. They were prepared to go as high as £86m for 19-year-old Yan Diomande, only to see RB Leipzig demand over £100m and the player’s camp signal a preference for Paris Saint-Germain before an eventual move to Real Madrid.
That was not the only near-miss. An enquiry for Monaco’s Maghnes Akliouche ended with the player choosing PSG. Anthony Gordon was under consideration before he opted for Barcelona.
Brighton’s Yankuba Minteh, Koln’s Said El Mala and Lille’s Matias Fernandez-Pardo have all been assessed as options. None has yet been pushed over the line.
Instead, one name has moved to the top of Liverpool’s list: Bradley Barcola. The PSG attacker has emerged as the clear priority, with talks held over a potential deal. Barcola is understood to be keen on the move. The problem is the price. PSG are holding firm at a valuation of at least £130m.
Liverpool remain open to adding both another forward and a midfield option. Whether those signings materialise will hinge on what happens next with their current senior core.
With the window running down and contracts ticking away, Iraola’s first Liverpool squad still feels like a work in progress. The only certainty now is that the final days before September 1 will define how ambitious this new era really is.
