A look back at Liverpool's January transfer window as the defending Premier League champions complete a deal for the £60m Jeremy Jacquet
Curtis Jones and Andy Robertson were both linked with moves away from Liverpool
Curtis Jones and Andy Robertson were both linked with moves away from Liverpool
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On New Year's Day, with Liverpool preparing to host Leeds United later that evening, the expectation inside Anfield was that it would be a quiet month when it came to the winter transfer window.
Speculation had raged, to varying degrees, over players like Antoine Semenyo and Marc Guehi but the Reds, even despite a stuttering season, were willing to bide their time when it came to the next phase of the squad building process.
According to those who had knowledge of the inner workings at Bournemouth, the champions' name had rarely featured where the future of Semenyo was concerned and by January 9, the Ghana international was a Manchester City player.
It was City's move for Guehi, however, that left most scratching their heads given Liverpool had come close to signing the England international from Crystal Palace on September 1. Guehi was actually in an MRI machine in a London medical facility last year when he learned of the 11th hour cancellation of his £35m move to Anfield.
The Reds had earmarked the 25-year-old as someone they would return for when he was a free agent the following year but City's plans changed after their own injuries at centre-back. A £20m deal was not rivalled by the defending Premier League champions and the surprise switch was completed without an attempt from sporting director Richard Hughes to muscle into the equation.
It's been communicated that Guehi's wages, which earn him a reported £300,000 a week, was simply something Liverpool wouldn't countenance, particularly given a contract had been agreed just a few months earlier at a level that was nowhere near that sum. Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk are the club's highest earners and it wasn't viewed as viable to put him in that same stratosphere.
The idea of an England international joining shortly after his 26th birthday as a free agent hugely appealed to the Reds but he was never viewed, to coin a Jurgen Klopp phrase, as 'a slam dunk signing', despite the obvious admiration for his talents.
"A market opportunity" was how Guehi was described, due to his contract status in south London at the time.
The wisdom around that decision will, of course, be debated at length but for Liverpool, the finances involved - Guehi and his representatives also reportedly earned a huge signing-on bonus - simply didn't stack up for someone who was inside the final months of his deal at Selhurst Park.
Acting on principle, however, did not ease the Reds' defensive woes and the season-ending injury to Conor Bradley at Arsenal, the hip issue for Joe Gomez picked up at Bournemouth and the groin problem for Jeremie Frimpong against Qarabag means the options are now worryingly thin for Arne Slot.
It's why Ibrahima Konate felt compelled to end his compassionate leave after the death of his father to help out his colleagues for Saturday's 4-1 home win over Newcastle United. It was timely return to the side for the defender, who shone at the back before scoring a late fourth.
The France international put in one of the strongest performances of his season to date on the back of his comeback but the lack of options at centre-half remaining glaring, with the versatile Gomez out and the inexperienced Giovanni Leoni recuperating after an ACL injury on his debut in September.
The news of Tottenham Hotspur's talks over Andy Robertson dissipated almost as quickly as it rose up, with the Reds deciding that the legendary left-back would be staying put after a surprise advance from last week.
Liverpool, respectful of Robertson's status and service to the club, were willing to listen to the advances of Spurs to begin with but were always reluctant to lose such a valued member of the squad.
The injury to Gomez in the 3-2 defeat to Bournemouth coupled with a fitness scare for Milos Kerkez meant that Liverpool made the call to keep all hands on deck.
Robertson confirmed earlier in the month that talks were open on a new deal but it's understood that he is keen for more game time to be as close to as 100% as possible for Scotland's first World Cup since 1998 this summer.
Reports that Inter had made contact over Curtis Jones were played down on Friday evening with it made clear that the club were determined to keep all their first-team players for the remainder of the campaign.
While the talks themselves were not explicitly denied, it was stressed that Slot, as he had professed the week before, wanted to keep everyone on board and that was very much the thinking inside the club.
Jones, who has a little under 18 months remaining on his current terms, could now be the subject of contract discussions behind the scenes as negotiations go on with players like Dominik Szoboszlai, Konate and Robertson.
At the Academy level, Liverpool moved to secure January deals for Mor Talla Ndiaye and Ifeanyi Ndukwe on the back of strong showings at the FIFA U-17 World Cup in Qatar back in November.
Senegal youth international Ndiaye moved for around £1m from Aimite in his homeland while Ndukwe, who cannot make the switch until after his 18th birthday in March, will link up in the summer after a £2.6m agreement with Austria Vienna. The Reds also secured a move for 19-year-old Noah Adekoya this month from Burnley.
With Leoni having joined in August, in a £26m transfer from Parma, and Jeremy Jacquet completing the formalities of his £60m transfer from Rennes on transfer deadline day in time for next season, the club have now brought in five centre-backs between the ages of 17 and 20 this season alone.
Clearly there are plans afoot for the longer term defensively at Anfield but with Konate inside the final months of his deal, Gomez, a long-serving player who nearly left last summer, and captain Virgil van Dijk 35 in July, further future-proofing may be needed at the back.
An eventful few days over the weekend saw Liverpool nudge ahead of Chelsea for Jacquet having accepted defeat in their last-gasp attempts to move Lutsharel Geertruida's loan arrangement with RB Leipzig and Sunderland over to Anfield.
Geertruida, who moved to Leipzig in the summer of 2024, was Slot's captain at Feyenoord and with the Reds crying out for defensive cover, a move was briefly explored. Sunderland, realising the opportunity that was presented to the 25-year-old, were happy not to stand in the way as such, but made it clear a replacement would need to be sourced in time for Monday night's visit from Burnley.
Within hours, it became accepted that it was too complex a negotiation to pull off in under 48 hours and by Sunday evening, it was dead in the water.
However, Liverpool did outflank Chelsea in the race for Jacquet with it being reported in London media that the Stamford Bridge club had given some consideration to the young defenders already on their books in 19-year-old Josh Acheampong and Mamadou Sarr, 20.
For a club who have seemingly made player trading their entire modus operandi since Toddy Boehly and his Clearlake Capital bought the club in 2022, the idea that due consideration was given to the development of players already on their books seems somewhat fanciful.
Chelsea, though, are well stocked at centre-half with Jorrel Hato, Benoit Badiashile, Tosin Adarabioyo, Wesley Fofana and the injured Levi Colwill to return alongside Acheampong and Sarr, who is currently on loan at Strasbourg.
Jacquet, clearly, won't face anything like the competition for a place at centre-half at Anfield, certainly from a purely numbers perspective and that was said to have been a key factor in the 20-year-old's decision to choose the Reds over the Londoners.
Chelsea, under Boehly and BlueCo, have become a place to stockpile players, regardless of the merits of their transfer strategy.
For long stretches, Liverpool's January had threatened to deliver on the talk of a quiet month. But while the flurry of action towards the end of the window does at least leave them considerably stronger at centre-half for next season onwards with the impending addition of Jacquet, they have, when the window finally closed at 7pm on Monday evening, essentially kept to the promise of ending the month as it started.
Time will tell if it was the right call as they continue the scrap for Champions League qualification.