Liverpool Faces Transfer Dilemma as Gakpo Deal Remains Alive
The clock is still ticking at Liverpool. And the biggest decision of Richard Hughes’ short Anfield reign may yet be hurtling towards him.
Transfer specialist Fabrizio Romano insists a mega deal involving Cody Gakpo remains very much alive, despite suggestions it had collapsed. Tottenham are still in the frame. Liverpool, crucially, are planning for the possibility of replacing him.
For a club that already looks light, that is a dangerous place to be.
A window slipping away
Tick. Tack. Tick. Tack.
Hughes does not have long left to salvage this window. His first summer in charge has already seen one high-profile misstep, with Yan Diomande – earmarked as the long-term heir to Mohamed Salah – slipping away to Real Madrid.
Pre-season under Andoni Iraola has brought encouraging performances, but also a harsh reality check. The new head coach has seen, up close, just how thin this Liverpool squad becomes once you scratch beneath the surface. The lack of depth is obvious. So is the need for investment.
Yet with the Premier League opener at St James’ Park against Newcastle United looming, Liverpool remain strangely static in the market. No major arrivals. No decisive reshaping of a squad that was already imbalanced last season despite heavy spending.
They cannot afford a repeat.
Leave this group riddled with gaps and Liverpool are staring at another draining campaign, another season of patchwork solutions and stretched resources.
Outgoings mount as gaps widen
Right now, the noise around Anfield is dominated by exits, not entrances.
Ifeanyi Ndukwe, one of the standout performers in pre-season, is closing in on a loan move to Levante. Luke Chambers, another youngster who caught the eye, is also being lined up for a loan away from the club.
Curtis Jones looks increasingly likely to move on as well. Inter Milan want him, but there is still a distance between their valuation and Liverpool’s. Even so, the signs are not good for those hoping he stays. His contract runs out next summer, Liverpool have not extended it, and his situation points towards an eventual parting of ways.
That would not just be a footballing loss. It would hit Liverpool’s homegrown quota hard.
They already waved goodbye to Tyler Morton, Caoimhin Kelleher and Jarell Quansah last summer. Remove Jones from that list and the number of club-trained players left in the squad shrinks to a worrying level.
Iraola could find himself trying to launch a new era with an even smaller, even more fragile group than the one that stumbled last season.
Gakpo deal “still on”
Then comes the Gakpo twist.
Romano, speaking on his YouTube channel, confirmed that despite recent rumours that a move to Tottenham was off, the deal is still “very much on”. Liverpool, he says, are already planning to replace the Dutch forward if he goes. Spurs still see the transfer as a live possibility.
Gakpo did not hit his highest level under Arne Slot last season. He never truly caught fire in a Liverpool shirt during that campaign. But this is the point in the summer when Liverpool should be adding firepower, not draining it.
Letting a versatile forward walk out of the door without clear, immediate reinforcements would be a huge gamble. Especially when the squad is already stretched, the homegrown core is thinning, and the new manager is still trying to imprint his ideas.
The window is closing in. The questions are piling up.
Hughes has no more room for hesitation.
