Andoni Iraola_v4
According to Fabrizio Romano, Liverpool have decided to treat Cody Gakpo as effectively a new signing this season, blocking any exit despite firm interest from Tottenham Hotspur on transfer deadline day. This stance from Anfield came after a chaotic summer saga that saw the Dutch forward agree personal terms with Manchester City for a proposed £80 million switch.
City had moved decisively following Liverpool’s signing of Bradley Barcola from Paris Saint-Germain for £123 million, betting Liverpool would sanction a sale. They didn’t. Sporting director Richard Hughes and head coach Andoni Iraola drew a hard line, choosing retention over a major cash injection, and Gakpo stays.
Liverpool transfer news surrounding this situation has dominated the back pages throughout the summer. Gakpo, now 27, posted 7 goals and 5 assists across 36 Premier League appearances during 2025/26, adding 2 goals and 1 assist in 11 Champions League outings. Internationally, his stock remains sky-high with 54 caps, 24 goals, and 3 scored at the 2026 FIFA World Cup for the Netherlands. Individually mixed, but undeniably important.
Liverpool made the right call
Let’s be direct about this: selling Gakpo to Manchester City in the final hours of a transfer window would have been an act of sporting self-sabotage dressed up as sound financial management.
The £80 million figure looks attractive on paper. It genuinely does. But strip away the headline number and the structural consequences get uncomfortable very quickly. Barcola arrived to cover the gap Luis Diaz left earlier. That’s his function. He wasn’t bought as a like-for-like Gakpo replacement, and using him as one distorts the squad’s entire attacking shape.
Liverpool actually tried to find alternatives. Crystal Palace’s Ismaïla Sarr and Brighton’s Yankuba Minteh were both explored, and both clubs, knowing full well Liverpool had deadline-day urgency stamped across their forehead, demanded north of £70-80 million each. So the financial logic collapses entirely. You receive £80 million, spend an equivalent sum on an unproven replacement, and net nothing except a worse squad.
Gakpo’s value isn’t purely numerical either. He can play as a left winger, press from a false nine role, or drop into an advanced midfield position without losing effectiveness. Iraola’s system specifically requires that sort of tactical intelligence: players who don’t need constant repositioning coaching because they read space instinctively. Finding that combination in a replacement isn’t a weekend’s work.
Liverpool transfer news this week also confirmed a quieter but critical factor. Liverpool entered deadline day full on non-homegrown squad spots in their Premier League registration. Any multi-player domino chain, selling Gakpo, registering a replacement, risked Iraola’s squad being structurally incomplete. Hughes clearly identified that risk early and refused to gamble.
The results since the window shut have already backed this decision. Gakpo has contributed a goal and an assist across his first two matches of the 2026/27 campaign, looking sharper than he did during last season’s flat mid-winter stretch.