Liverpool sign PSG & Barcelona stars in big £138m summer transfer window predictionplaceholder image
Liverpool sign PSG & Barcelona stars in big £138m summer transfer window prediction | Getty Images
Liverpool have an intriguing summer transfer window in their future - if Football Manager can be believed.
Last summer, Liverpool went all out in the transfer market, in the hopes of securing their position as Premier League champions for many years to come. Enormous sums were spent on the likes of Alexander Isak, Florian Wirtz, Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez. It doesn’t seem to have worked – at least not yet.
Arne Slot’s second act has proven to be something of a challenge, with the team well adrift of the title race. That could mean another summer of spending lies ahead as Liverpool’s transfer team tries to bridge the gap to Arsenal and Manchester City, but working out exactly how they will spend their cash is something of a challenge.
Out of curiosity, we decided to take a peek into the footballing future by getting a prediction from what’s probably the most accurate simulation of the game – Football Manager 2026. Liverpool will splash £138m about in a few months’ time if the game has things right, but what will the team’s priorities be? And who might leave Anfield? Let’s take a look...
PSG & Barcelona stars to sign for Liverpool – according to Football Manager
In our simulated summer, Liverpool signed four players – three of them for pretty substantial sums, even if we didn’t quite get anything as seismic as the deals for Isak or Wirtz.
Clearly recognising the need for some more attacking quality, Liverpool started by signing PSG winger Lee Kang-In for £38m, with the South Korean offering technical quality and the ability to operate on both flanks. That’s not an especially implausible deal, either, with plenty of speculation surrounding Lee’s future in the French capital.
A new midfield engine room also arrives in the form of Feyenoord midfielder Quentin Timber, brother of Arsenal’s Jurriën, who arrives on a loan deal with a purchase clause worth a hefty £49m. Frankly, based on his attributes in the game, that would probably be an overpay, although Football Manager doesn’t always get these things right.
Defence is also addressed, with 20-year-old Héctor Fort arriving from Barcelona. A full-back who can play on either side and in the centre if required, the quick and hard-working Fort set the Reds back all of £42m. He seems to be pegged as a rotational option rather than a nailed-on starter, with plenty of room to develop into a truly first-rate player.
The fourth and final signing is one for the future – Botafogo’s young Argentine forward Álvaro Montoro, who costs £9m and looks like he could end up being a bargain at that price. He certainly has numbers in all the right places.
Whether that would represent a good or bad window depends, of course, on who might leave – so let’s take a look…
Experienced midfielder among Liverpool players to leave in the summer
Let’s start with the headlines – none of the biggest names depart in our game. Mohamed Salah stays at Anfield and resists the lure of Saudi Arabian cash. Andrew Robertson appears to have signed a new contract extension, as did Ibrahima Konaté. We’ll find out how realistic all that is very soon.
That makes Liverpool’s relatively unexciting spending a little more reasonable, as they were filling holes rather than replacing established stars – but there were still a few players on the way out.
Midfielder Wataru Endo joins Inter Milan for £5.5m in our game and immediately becomes a regular at the San Siro, while left-back Owen Beck joins West Ham on a loan-to-buy deal worth a little under £7m.
Elsewhere, the injury-plagued Stefan Bajčetić joined Middlesbrough on loan – plausible enough – and young Lewis Koumas makes an interesting career left-turn by joining Cypriot side APOEL on a temporary basis. Neither are set to leave permanently, at least.
All told, this would be a relatively conservative window, and we’d be surprised if Salah, Konaté and Robertson all remain with the club – but perhaps Liverpool simply need their new players to settle in and gel rather than embarking on an ambitious rebuild. Time will tell.
Continue Reading