Manchester United Eye £80m Mateus Fernandes as Liverpool's Loan Disaster
Manchester United and Liverpool went shopping in the same league last summer. Twelve months on, they find themselves on opposite ends of the verdict.
A comprehensive ranking of all 189 Premier League signings from last season, compiled by The Athletic, has painted a stark picture: United’s business looks shrewd, Liverpool’s looks scattered, and one loan deal in particular has been savaged as “catastrophic”.
At the top end of the list sits a player United now want to prise away for £80m. At the very bottom, a Liverpool midfielder whose season at Aston Villa never really started.
United’s four hits – and a new £80m obsession
United’s recruitment has taken a battering in recent years, but this time the numbers tell a different story. All four of their major additions landed inside the top 40 of the 189-man ranking.
- Matheus Cunha came in at 40th
- Bryan Mbeumo at 38th
- Benjamin Sesko at 29th
All three delivered what United have too often lacked: energy, goals, and a sense of purpose in the final third.
The standout, though, was Senne Lammens. The Belgian goalkeeper, ranked ninth overall, produced the kind of debut season at Old Trafford that settles arguments. Commanding, assured, and decisive in big moments, he gave United a platform they have been searching for since David de Gea’s peak years.
Higher still, in eighth place, sits a player who doesn’t yet wear red but may not be far away: Mateus Fernandes.
The Portugal international joined West Ham from Southampton for £40m and promptly became the one shining light in a season that ended in relegation. When Lucas Paqueta departed in January, West Ham needed someone to take the ball, take responsibility, and take risks. Fernandes did all three.
Tackles. Duels. Recoveries. Long-range goals. Line-splitting passes. He became the Hammers’ chief playmaker almost overnight and, crucially, looked entirely at home in the role.
No wonder United are circling.
West Ham, now facing the financial and competitive realities of the Championship, value him at around £80m. That figure reflects both his importance and their need to sell from a position that is weaker than it would have been had they stayed up. TEAMtalk reports that Fernandes, whose idol is United captain Bruno Fernandes, would jump at the move. Personal terms are not expected to be a problem.
The question sits squarely with United: is he the midfielder to anchor the next phase of their rebuild, and how far are they willing to push to get him out of the London Stadium?
Liverpool’s record outlay, modest returns
While United’s four headline signings all landed in the top 40, Liverpool’s scattergun summer reads very differently.
They broke their transfer record twice. First for Florian Wirtz at £116m, then again for Alexander Isak at £125m. Two enormous bets, two underwhelming returns in the rankings.
- Wirtz scraped into the top 100 at 97th, a placement that hints at flashes of quality but not the transformative impact a nine-figure fee demands.
- Isak’s campaign never caught fire at all. Injuries wrecked his rhythm and he ended up 172nd out of 189 – a brutal number for a striker signed to lead the line for years.
The supporting cast fared slightly better, if not spectacularly. Milos Kerkez ranked 49th, the best of Liverpool’s intake, with Hugo Ekitike just behind at 50th. Giorgi Mamardashvili landed in 73rd, Freddie Woodman at 89th, Jeremie Frimpong drifted all the way down to 119th, and Giovanni Leoni – who tore his ACL on debut – was placed 143rd.
Only Kerkez and Ekitike can really claim to have moved the needle. The rest tell a story of a club paying big money for minimal short-term impact.
All of that would be concerning enough. Then comes the deal that propped up the entire list.
Harvey Elliott’s Villa nightmare
Dead last. Out of 189 signings, The Athletic judged Harvey Elliott’s loan from Liverpool to Aston Villa as the worst move of the season.
Their assessment was scathing. A “catastrophic deal for both clubs and the player,” they called it.
Villa enjoyed an excellent season under Unai Emery, but Elliott never found a place in it. While Emery’s structure and John McGinn’s drive formed the spine of the side, Elliott became an afterthought, described as the “appendix” of the team.
He made just three starts. Emery clearly did not trust him, and attempts to salvage the situation collapsed. Negotiations in January to cut the loan short, or at least remove the obligation-to-buy clause that would trigger after 10 appearances, went nowhere. He made his ninth outing in March, still on the brink of a permanent move that nobody seemed to want any more.
The report branded the whole episode “shambolic”, especially given Elliott’s talent at 23 and Liverpool’s need to protect the value of their assets. For a player once tipped as a long-term Anfield creative hub, the season became a warning of how quickly a career can stall with the wrong move at the wrong time.
Xhaka tops the list as Sunderland shock the league
At the opposite end of the spectrum, Granit Xhaka took the number one spot. The former Arsenal midfielder has reinvented himself before, but this might be his most impressive act yet.
His arrival at Sunderland transformed a newly promoted side into Europa League qualifiers in their first season back in the top flight. Leadership, control, and that familiar edge in midfield turned an optimistic survival bid into something far more ambitious.
While Xhaka’s renaissance grabbed the headlines, it is Fernandes’ surge into eighth that will keep recruitment teams busy this summer.
A relegated playmaker, a weakened seller, a buying club in need of a midfield fulcrum, and a player who grew up idolising the man who now wears United’s armband. The pieces are on the table.
Liverpool, still counting the cost of a record-breaking but erratic window and the Elliott fiasco, will watch on as United decide whether to push for the £80m man who could define the next phase of their rebuild – or become another what-if in a market that rarely forgives hesitation.
