The quietness of this summer’s transfer window has unsettled a few Reds, despite the fact we won the Champions League just over two months ago.
Many simply expected us to solidify our position as Europe’s best via the transfer market – due to the fact we’re as attractive a club to the best players as Barcelona and Real Madrid right now – and because we’re surely financially capable following 2018/19’s exploits.
But as of now, we’ve brought in Sepp van den Berg and Harvey Elliott for the future – and Adrian to back up Alisson between the sticks.
Liverpool correspondent Kristian Walsh has speculated that due to this nothing window, ‘next summer could be another big one,’ and shared an article penned on his website Liverpool.com that throws three enormous names into the mix: Kylian Mbappe, Jadon Sancho and Kai Havertz!
Sancho, Mbappe, Haivertz? If #LFC aren't spending big this summer, then the suggestion is next summer could be another big one.@joel_archie looks at who fits the bill best.https://t.co/gHp9p7vnSH
— Kristian Walsh (@Kristian_Walsh) August 6, 2019
Mbappe is already world-class and the apparent heir to Lionel Messi’s ‘Best Player in the World’ crown – while the other two are perhaps the best teenagers on the planet.
Linking them to Anfield without any information backing it up seems a little farfetched to us, but maybe this is the only kind of footballer who’d actively improve our side right now – or in a year’s time.
A recent interview with Peter Krawietz, one of Jurgen Klopp’s assistants, in The Athletic, suggests Liverpool will wait for the right players to become available – and not invest for the sake of doing so.
“This is not a PlayStation game. We can’t design our own players or buy them with virtual currency. It comes down to the budget and the available options. Who’s on the market and for how much?” he told Raph Honigstein.
“And you still have to compare them to the players already in the squad. If £40million won’t buy you a noticeable improvement, if we don’t see how that guy will lift up our performances to the next level, Jurgen will never do it. He won’t spend for the sake of spending.”
We saw with our refusal to buy any other centre-back other than Virgil van Dijk, and wait a year for Naby Keita, that this is indeed Klopp’s policy, and perhaps not one we should argue with.
However, the idea that we should be strengthening our options for 2019/20 and insuring ourselves against an injury to the front-three has merit.
If something happens to Mo Salah, Sadio Mane or Roberto Firmino in terms of a nasty injury, all hell will break loose.
But if Klopp hasn’t already earned our unwavering trust, he never will.