Liverpool will be hoping to challenge Manchester City for the Premier League title next season
Take one look around at the transfer business of other Premier League clubs and an unwelcome pattern is emerging for Liverpool.
The biggest deal of the window so far has been Arsenal’s record-breaking deal for Declan Rice, backed up by moves for Kai Havertz and Jurrien Timber to add additional quality to Mikel Arteta’s side. Tottenham Hotspur have, too, been busy after recruiting Dejan Kulusevski, James Maddison, Manor Solomon and Guglielmo Vicario
Teams at the top of the table making such signings will not have come as a major surprise to Jurgen Klopp. Instead, it is the sides lower down the division whose activity to date has been impossible to ignore.
Liverpool learned the hard way last season that there is no such thing as easy games in the Premier League these days, losing to two of the newly-promoted teams away from home while also being held on the road to the third team that returned to the top flight: Fulham.
The Reds were forced to dig deep to prevent their from season from unravelling, rallying to finish fifth and narrowly miss out on the Champions League. Two teams vying for the top four alongside Liverpool were Aston Villa and Brighton, a notion that would seem somewhat inconceivable only two years ago.
What’s clear, though, is that the aforementioned duo are not going anywhere. They are simply growing stronger. Villa recently smashed their club-record transfer fee to bring Bayer Leverkusen winger Moussa Diaby to the West Midlands, in a deal worth a reported £51.9m. Days earlier they had announced the arrival of Spanish defender Pau Torres, who only last April was facing off against Liverpool in a Champions League semi-final and had been linked with a move to Manchester United on multiple occasions. Add in the shrewd acquisition of Youri Tielemans on a fee transfer and it is clear to see Unai Emery is putting together a team capable of causing long-term problems.
The same could also be said for Brighton, who will be competing in next season’s Europa League alongside Liverpool and kick-started their summer business by finalising an agreement for James Milner to head to the South Coast. Liverpool’s loss will almost certainly be Brighton’s gain after getting their hands on a player who rarely endures an off-day regardless of which position he is played in.
Coupled with the experience and know-how of Milner, the Seagulls have added youthful players with bags of potential to the mix. A club-record £30m was spent on Watford forward Joao Pedro, who at 21 years of age still has plenty to offer, and 20-year-old Dutch goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen. Former Liverpool transfer target Mahmoud Dahoud has also been acquired, leaving behind Borussia Dortmund to join the club’s ambitious journey under Roberto De Zerbi.
Even at the lower reaches of the division, the gap to the top is quickly being closed. Bournemouth have splashed £9.6m on Justin Kluivert, son of Patrick, whose grounding in the game has been achieved at established clubs such as Ajax and AS Roma. Lyon (Romain Faivre) and Sassuolo (Hamed Traore) are two other clubs Bournemouth have bought from this summer as they seek European talent to boost their chances of climbing up the league table next term.
Joining the long list of teams to surpass their record outlay, Brentford’s £20m purchase of Freiburg winger Kevin Schade could represent the latest inspired transfer completed by a club who continue to punch above their weight with Thomas Frank at the helm.
Liverpool have, of course, snapped up impressive players of their own in recent weeks, Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai instantly improving what was a midfield department in need of a serious revamp. Such business stands the Reds in good stead as they look to compete for silverware once again, though their route back to the top is far from simple.
As well as battling the usual suspects hoping to put a dent in the club’s title challenge, Klopp’s side are now faced with the threat of the so-called weaker sides appearing anything but that picking up all three points in a Premier League game has never seemed harder
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