Liverpool’s decision to delay transfer business until the summer rather than making moves in January reflects their long-term planning under Arne Slot. With key players returning from injury and the squad already competing on multiple fronts, the club prioritised stability over short-term fixes.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Liverpool has been given a new name since the start of the season. What are your thoughts
00:04on this?
00:05Starting with Liverpool, and looking at the business throughout January now, we've discussed
00:08no signings coming in, a lot of high level links to top players, and they've gone to
00:15other big clubs in Europe. Liverpool is an amazing destination at the moment if you are
00:20a player looking for a club, and a top level player especially, with what Liverpool's season
00:26could turn into. Do you think they're giving themselves a bit of hard work to do in the
00:31summer, maybe lining up for a big summer under Arnie Schlott? Because of this January window,
00:36what's your take? Can you see any business happening before the window closes?
00:40Yes, it's an interesting one because when Liverpool made moves in January in the past,
00:45bringing in Diaz and Cody Gaffport, and obviously Virgil van Dijk before, that took a little
00:52bit of pressure off the summer then because the players are in and they're there for pre-season,
00:57you already know the squads. I think ahead of the summer, I'm not saying it's going to
01:05be a massive overhaul, but even if Liverpool do go and win the title, they're still going
01:09to have to make changes to the squads. Left-back being one, a lot of supporters want a left-back
01:16to come in now, but Liverpool have got two options there and they're not going to probably
01:20get a third one. In the summer, they're going to have to go and get a new centre-forward
01:26because Darwin Nunes, the jury is still very much out with him after two and a half years
01:31at the club, and Diogo Jota has had his fitness problems again, so that might be an area they
01:36have to address. Centre-back, depending on what might happen with, say, a Joe Gomez,
01:42if he says, right, I need to go out and play football. And Liverpool, maybe they might
01:49want a left-footed centre-half anyway, so do they have to address that area in midfield
01:55as well? Do they want a back-up for a Ryan Gravenbeck? Does Wataru Endo say, look, I'm
02:0231, 32 now, I want to go out and play football. So potentially, I'm not saying this will happen
02:10because it might not, but there might be four positions there that Liverpool need to go
02:15out and bolster, and that's without maybe having to go and get a new right-back as well,
02:20because we all know what happened with Trent Ellis, because that happened to Arnold, you'd
02:23still think that additions are going to be needed. The caveat to that is that the summer
02:29is easier in terms of getting targets in. There's more players available, less panic
02:36buyers, prices aren't as inflated. Liverpool often do their business in the summer like
02:42a lot of clubs are out in January. But yeah, if one did come in, say, in January, it would
02:49take that little bit of pressure off. But at the end of the day, it's got to be the
02:52right player who's going to be able to make an impact, really, for Liverpool, and there
02:57probably isn't that sort of player out there.