Cody Gakpo’s move to Manchester City fell apart at the very last moment this summer, and the fallout from that collapse is still shaping Liverpool’s forward line weeks later.
City had a deal worth over €100m ready to go, personal terms were already agreed, and Gakpo himself was keen on the switch.
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Then Liverpool pulled the plug.
The knock-on effects were immediate.
With Gakpo staying put, Liverpool went out and signed Bradley Barcola from PSG for €125m and Victor Munoz from Osasuna for €40m, both natural options on the left.
That’s left the club with four players competing for a single position, Gakpo, Barcola, Munoz and academy graduate Rio Ngumoha, who turned 18 last week and had already racked up 30 appearances last season before earning an England call-up.
Ngumoha had been hoping to inherit a starting role once Gakpo moved on. Now he’s fighting for scraps of playing time behind three senior options instead.
De Telegraaf, the Dutch outlet that broke the story, reports that Liverpool had promised Gakpo the move for weeks before blocking it, and that the decision has cost him personally as well as professionally.
According to the paper, Gakpo missed out on more than €15m in salary over a five-year period, with City reportedly offering him several million more per year than he currently earns at Anfield.
De Telegraaf points to no official explanation from the club, but suggests the reversal lines up with the arrival of new co-owner Jeff Bezos, whose consortium paid close to €2bn for a third of Liverpool’s shares this summer and holds an option to become majority owner down the line.
Gakpo signed a new contract at Liverpool last year that runs until 2030, which makes another shot at a big-money move, or a pay rise to match what City were offering, unlikely to land any time soon.
He set up Alexander Isak’s goal last weekend and scored himself against Newcastle on the opening day, numbers that suggest he’s simply got on with the job under new manager Andoni Iraola.
Iraola, brought in from Bournemouth after Arne Slot’s departure in May, now has a genuine selection headache on the left, but not the kind that helps Liverpool’s title challenge.
The club dropped four points from their opening two league games, and with Barcola still short of full match fitness after a long World Cup summer, Gakpo remains first-choice by default rather than by City’s decision.
Whether that arrangement suits Bezos and the club’s new ownership as well as it once suited Gakpo’s bank balance is a separate question entirely.
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