Look, let’s just speak as match-going fans who have spent the last 24 hours staring at each other in the pub trying to make sense of what just happened.
Walking away from the summer window, it’s hard not to feel completely underwhelmed. We were promised this fresh, high-octane era under Andoni Iraola, a proper evolution of the side. But when the deadline dust settled, what did we actually get? Three incomings, and one of those is just a temporary loan for Ronald Araujo.
On top of that, you’ve got the chaos behind the scenes with Richard Hughes packing his bags for Al-Hilal. It’s messy, it’s disjointed, and it leaves us walking into a relentless fixture list with a squad that feels properly stretched to its limits.
Bradley Barcola looks like a proper baller who gets you off your seat, and Victor Munoz has some raw talent, but let’s be honest—it feels like we’re playing catch-up already. You just look at the depth chart and wonder how long this squad can hold together before the wheels start wobbling.
Yet, even when the window slams shut and the club is in a bit of transition upstairs, the rumor mill never stops.
Take the wide areas. Yankuba Minteh has been linked with us forever, and you can see why he fits what Iraola wants. He’s quick, he skins full-backs for fun, and crucially, he actually puts a shift in defensively which you have to do if you want to play in this system. Then there’s the Ismaïla Sarr situation down at Palace. The lad was desperate to wear the red shirt and follow in Sadio Mane’s footsteps, and seeing his dream move blocked must have gutted him. You just get this gut feeling that chapter isn’t completely closed yet.
And then there’s the midfield chatter, which is where things get genuinely interesting.
Lamine Camara thought he was off to Chelsea on deadline day before the whole thing spectacularly blew up at the eleventh hour. According to the r[eports floating around from Ben Jacobs,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wW17hpTFeDg) Liverpool quietly got on the phone to Monaco and the player’s camp with a very simple message: _just wait._ We aren’t doing a panic buy right now, but hold tight for 2027. Add in Monaco’s sporting director Thiago Scuro essentially winking at the press and talking about a “major” transfer coming soon, and it’s pretty clear someone has laid the groundwork for the future.
So yeah, the summer leaves a bitter taste. Losing our sporting director while leaving key areas short feels like we’ve made life harder than it needed to be for Iraola. But regardless of who is in the boardroom, the club is always looking down the track. The targets are marked, the plans are being drawn up, and we’ll just have to see if the January window brings the answers we needed this week. Up the Reds.