Liverpool legend Gary McAllister was part of extensive Liverpool transfer overhauls both as a player and as a coach and is confident that Arne Slot's recent recruits will come good at Anfield despite a slow start
Roberto Firmino in Liverpool training as first team coach Gary McAllister watches on in the background back in 2015, and Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz in a Liverpool training session during the 2025/26 season
Roberto Firmino in Liverpool training as first team coach Gary McAllister watches on in the background back in 2015, and Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz in a Liverpool training session during the 2025/26 season
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When Liverpool sanctioned a £450m summer spending spree, breaking the British transfer record twice in the process on Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak, few would have envisaged how the season would unfold for the Reds.
Arne Slot’s side were reigning Premier League champions, having won the title at a canter, and looked set to go from strength to strength. Instead, they find themselves floundering in mid-table, having suffered their worst run of results since the 1950s.
This was not how things were supposed to go after navigating the costliest and most active transfer window in Liverpool history. But while 10 new players were brought in, admittedly, such business came with a caveat.
The Reds also received roughly £200m from player sales as 10 members of Slot’s title-winning squad also moved on.
With the majority wanting to move on to seek pastures new, an overhaul was inevitable as a result.
But while its aim was to make Liverpool stronger, instead of taking one step forward, they have taken two steps back. Only time will tell if this campaign will be remembered as one of transition or one compromised by ‘poor’ recruitment.
For now, it is too early to write off the Reds’ summer signings - despite the fact that the majority are yet to fit in at Anfield and live up to their hefty price-tags. But as Liverpool’s struggles continue across the board, scrutiny forming outside the club only intensifies - even if both Isak and Wirtz played a vital role in helping the club return to winning ways away at West Ham United on Sunday.
The Reds have been here before, having invested significantly only to be left with mixed results at best while waiting to enjoy the fruits of their labour.
Under Fenway Sports Group’s watch, the summer of 2014 when trying - and ultimately failing - to replace Luis Suarez inevitably stands out as a failure as the likes of Mario Balotelli, Lazar Markovic and Rickie Lambert were all brought in.
History belatedly shone kinder on Adam Lallana, Dejan Lovren, Emre Can and even Alberto Moreno. But having gone from nearly winning the Premier League title the year before to finishing a distant sixth, it is the perfect example of how such spending sprees are rarely immediate successes.
Likewise in 2011/12, when bringing in seven new players, Jordan Henderson was the only new arrival to forge a successful long-term career at Anfield. And even then, he was nearly sold after a disappointing first season.
Liverpool were just as busy in the summer of 2015, only for their struggles to continue under Brendan Rodgers. Fortunately for the Reds, the arrival of Jurgen Klopp soon reversed such a narrative for the majority as the likes of Roberto Firmino and James Milner emerged as long-standing club legends - if not costliest signing, Christian Benteke.
Fast forward another year and FSG oversaw their most successful revamp yet, with the additions of Sadio Mane, Gini Wijnaldum and Joel Matip helping return the Reds to the Champions League. They have not looked back since.
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Admittedly, FSG have been criticised a number of times for their limited business over the past decade, having taken a more controlled approach since restoring Liverpool to the top of the English and European game.
But former club transfer chiefs, such as Ian Graham - the Reds’ former Director of Research - are all record detailing how transfers are always a gamble, especially when en masse, with stability much more beneficial for a club with title ambitions.
Liverpool are seeing the truth in such words now more than ever.
Of course, there are further exceptions. The Reds brought in eight new players ahead of the 2013/14 season. But on closer inspection, only Simon Mignolet was an undisputed first-choice with the rest of the new recruits instead bolstering the squad as a whole - still with mixed success.
Rafa Benitez enjoyed greater success in the mid-noughties when significantly bolstering his ranks year after year. But there was still a scattergun approach, with just as many new recruits flourishing as others finding themselves swiftly discarded after failing to make the grade.
And prior to the introduction of the mid-season transfer window, Gerard Houllier oversaw success after vast recruitment drives in the summers of 1999 and 2000.
Liverpool signed six new players ahead of their treble-winning campaign for example. But what is telling in comparison to today’s recruitment is the contrasting profiles of such recruits.
The majority of the Reds’ latest arrivals are in their early twenties with their peak years still ahead of them, and boast limited Premier League experience. But it was a different story back then.
Bernard Diomede might have flopped but was a World Cup winner. Markus Babbel was at his prime at 27 years old, having proven himself at the highest level on the global stage for a number of years. And Gary McAllister, Nick Barmby, Christian Ziege and Pegguy Arphexad were all Premier League proven with a plethora of experience also.
Speaking exclusively to new ECHO monthly publication ‘Blood Red’, on behalf of Casino Bernie, McAllister insists such factors - or lack of on this occasion - cannot be overlooked when trying to explain Slot’s current crop’s struggles.
Gerard Houllier and Phil Thompson with new signings (back row) Markus Babbel, Gary McAllister and (middle) Bernard Diomede, Pegguy Arphexad and Nick Barmby
Gerard Houllier and Phil Thompson with new signings (back row) Markus Babbel, Gary McAllister and (middle) Bernard Diomede, Pegguy Arphexad and Nick Barmby
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“It's not hit or miss. Sometimes what people don't take into consideration is people are coming to this country for maybe the first time, so that's a big shift,” he said. “The style of play in this country, that's a big shift.
“The speed of the play is a big shift. But there’s also the welfare side of things. You don't want to be making excuses, and it should be something the players should just transition into but it's hard.
“If you're bringing in one, then you've got good senior pros, you rally around that one. But when it's four, five, six players that are being bought…
“You look at the prices that they've paid for them, they don't have to be first team players, but the money suggests that they're coming to play in the first team immediately. It does take time, and that's been a part of it.”
McAllister’s experience of such a transfer overhaul at Liverpool is not limited to his time as a player 25 years ago though.
He also returned to the Reds as first team coach under Rodgers in the summer of 2015, when £85m was spent on Benteke, Firmino, Nathaniel Clyne, Danny Ings and Joe Gomez and Milner and Adam Bogdan were brought in on free transfers.
Firmino is the biggest success story of such a crop, but you would not have thought it if asked to make predictions during the initial months of his time at Anfield.
He struggled with injury and finding a suitable role in the side as he also adjusted to English football, with it taking the arrival of Klopp to truly unlock his abilities.
There are comparisons to be made between the Brazilian and both Wirtz and Isak in particular, given the former’s own issues since making his own switch from the Bundesliga and the latter’s struggles with fitness after a disjointed pre-season at former club Newcastle United.
But McAllister saw enough from Firmino in training to be convinced that he would be a success at Liverpool. And he believes it will be a similar story now for the two costliest players in the Reds’ history.
Brendan Rodgers manger of Liverpool talks with Roberto Firmino during a training session at Melwood Training Ground on August 22, 2015 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
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“I think the players will be noticing (Hugo) Ekitike and Isak and how good Florian is in the training sessions,” he said. “And that was immediate when Firmino arrived at the training ground.
“A wee bit like when I first went there and you see the level of Coutinho and Sturridge. It was like, ‘Oh wow, these are guys up a notch!’ But Firmino was similar.
“I think that the thing, certainly coming from the Bundesliga, is the intensity of our game. That's the thing that they've got to try and catch early. Firmino grabbed it early.
“I can only comment on what I saw in and around the training ground, but as part of a group, he just settled very, very quickly. An experienced guy, but he wasn't a youngster. You could see that he was an exceptional player. To go on and do what he did, wow, that was special.
“If you're talking about ability-wise, Wirtz and Isak are outstanding too. Prior to Liverpool's interest in Isak, the way he was playing at Newcastle, when you listen to strikers talking about Isak, they all had him up there as one of the best.
“His movement, the way he can come and light the team. How exciting he is in front of goal and getting in behind. The little flashes that I saw for Newcastle… He's obviously come to Liverpool and not hit those heights yet, but how much he really got in the heads of the Arsenal centre-backs.
“He had some good days against Arsenal, and to cause those two problems, you've got to be a good player. So Isak, there's no doubt he'll become that again.
“Wirtz is the same. He's proven that. He's been an outstanding player at Leverkusen and for the national team.
“Maybe we got a little insight against Real Madrid, playing from the side and looking in at the game. He didn't play like a left winger. But just that starting position of being there and then wandering into that number 10, which is his familiar role.
“I thought that was his best game and we want to see more of that.”
KIRKBY, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 21: (THE SUN OUT, THE SUN ON SUNDAY OUT) Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz of Liverpool during a training session at AXA Training Centre on October 21, 2025 in Kirkby, England. (Photo by Nick Taylor/Liverpool FC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz during a Liverpool training session at AXA Training Centre on October 21, 2025
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Isak and Wirtz might be yet to live up to their price-tags at Liverpool as the Reds’ struggles continue. But as the plight of Firmino demonstrates, sometimes patience really does pay off.
Rodgers - and McAllister - did not survive long enough to enjoy the full transition. Only time will tell if the under-fire Slot suffers the same fate. But while pressure is mounting on Liverpool’s latest title-winning coach, his new signings will at least be afforded the luxury of a little more time.
And if the victory at West Ham is anything to go by, where Isak scored his first Premier League goal and Wirtz enjoyed his best Premier League performance yet, the evidence would suggest that McAllister will soon be proven right.
This article appears in the December edition of the Blood Red magazine - order your copy here