What will the January transfer window hold for Hirko Ito, Mohamed Salah and Liverpool manager Arne Slot? | National World / Getty Imagesplaceholder image
What will the January transfer window hold for Hirko Ito, Mohamed Salah and Liverpool manager Arne Slot? | National World / Getty Images | National World / Getty Images
Arne Slot’s side face tough transfer decisions as they look to climb the Premier Leaugue table
Last season, Liverpool spent £10 million to finish three places higher, this campaign they splashed out the most by any club in a transfer window (£415m) to drop four places and sit 15 points behind where they were 12 months ago. And interestingly, if they had the same 35 points at this stage last season they would’ve been joint-seventh with Manchester City.
So it makes sense that they’ve halted the spending for now, only bringing in Senegalese teenager Mor Talla Ndiaye for a million pounds. But will that be their only expenditure this window or will they go big to fit holes at full-back and in the centre of defence? To answer those questions, we fired up Football Manager 26 and jumped to February to see what it predicted. There were three arrivals and one exit for a fee - and crucially that departure wasn’t Mohamed Salah. But the Egyptian’s successor on the right flank is predicted to sign:
Liverpool’s January transfer window signings predicted
Hiroki Ito - £26m from Bayern Munich - The centre-back moved from Stuttgart to Bavaria last season for around this sum, and has failed to make any real impact under Vincent Kompany. A pair of brutal metatarsal fractures have limited him to just 16 appearances (10 of them from the bench), though he’s now fit.
Liverpool need a centre-back sooner rather than later, with Ibrahima Konate leaving for free in the summer. But Ito hasn’t shown he’s dependable enough to become a regular starter at Anfield. If The Reds were also bringing in someone like Nico Schlotterbeck or Marc Guehi (who is leaving Crystal Palace in 2026 one way or another), this would look a much better signing, but in isolation it’s not a great move.
Alisson - £18m from Shakhtar Donetsk - If he can have the same impact on Merseyside as his namesake, this will be a bargain. The player Liverpool would hope can replace Salah on the right flank, Alisson was dynamite with the ball at his feet for Atletico Mineiro but lacked end product, a flaw Shakhtar Donetsk hoped they would fix.
In his first full season playing in Europe, Alisson has only scored and assisted once in the league so the jury is still out, but the 20-year-old remains a threat when running at a backline and would retain strong sell-on value.
Ederson - £50m from Atalanta - The biggest signing of the window for Liverpool, Ederson would still only be The Reds’ fourth most expensive addition this season. Aged 26, the Brazilian hasn’t shown any truly standout qualities but he has no real weaknesses either. £50m would be a pretty high investment for such a player especially given Liverpool are having enough problems fixing their midfield jigsaw.
However, given Ryan Gravenberch’s stark loss of form and the struggles Curtis Jones and Alexis Mac Allister have faced this season, a fresh face to compete in midfield may not be the worst signing.
Liverpool’s January transfer window exits predicted
Wataru Endo - £12m from Paris Saint-Germain - The Japan captain has played less than 250 minutes and is now in the final 18 months of his contract. This deal would be slightly less than Liverpool paid to buy the midfielder from Stuttgart, but at this point they may be best off cutting their losses.
Rio Ngumoha - loan to Swansea City - The 17-year-old emulated Micah Richards with the way he burst into Liverpool supporters’ hearts with that incredible winning goal against Newcastle United at the start of the season, but that remains his only goal contribution of the campaign. Ngumoha has found himself in an unfortunate middle ground since then - unused by Liverpool’s age-group teams but only playing a handful of minutes for the senior side, so a loan move should help him revive his confidence.
Despite sitting 17th in the Championship, only three teams have had more of the ball than Swansea whose biggest problem is turning that possession into goals. Ngumoha would help with that.
Stefan Bajcetic - loan to Millwall - Bajcetic hasn’t played for Liverpool in over 600 days and a hamstring injury has kept him out for all of this season, scuppering potential loan moves so far. He could obviously do with game time but it would perhaps make more sense for The Reds to keep him closer to home.
Additionally Luke Chambers is sent on loan to Preston North End despite Thierry Small’s strong form at left wing-back while Trey Nyoni, Trent Kone-Doherty, Calum Scanlon make temporary trips to Wrexham, Colchester United and Lincoln City.
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