John Aldridge has claimed that one Liverpool player ‘dodged a bullet’ when a prospective exit from Anfield ended up not materialising.
In the final days of the summer transfer window, Cody Gakpo had reportedly opted to join Manchester City amid the Reds’ impending purchase of Bradley Barcola, although he ultimately stayed put after the Merseysiders rejected an £80m bid from the Etihad Stadium.
Since then, the Sky Blues have been found guilty of 114 charges of breaching the Premier League’s financial rules by making ‘sham payments’ which falsely doctored their statements of revenue and reduced their costs by more than £900m (The Athletic).
Aldridge: Gakpo ‘dodged a bullet’ by not joining Man City
There’s set to be a febrile atmosphere at Anfield on Sunday when Liverpool play host to Man City, and with the away team now facing the prospect of gargantuan punishments to fit their off-field crimes, Aldridge feels that Gakpo must now be very glad that his proposed transfer didn’t come off.
The former Reds striker wrote in his latest column for the Liverpool Echo: ‘Cody Gakpo could have easily joined Man City in the summer. We don’t know what they were telling all these players they were after, but it looks like he has dodged a bullet, hasn’t he?’
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Gakpo must now be glad he remained at Liverpool
To think now that Gakpo could’ve gone to the Etihad at the end of August and, only a few weeks later, become embroiled in what currently seems a very uncertain future for Enzo Maresca’s side.
If Man City are relegated one or more divisions as a punishment for their multitude of rule breaches, it appears inevitable that there’ll be an extensive fire sale involving the majority of their current squad.
How would it have felt for the Dutch winger if he’d gone to the Sky Blues and, within a few short months, being left to either play in a lower division or swiftly pack his bags again for a move elsewhere?
Unfortunately for Gakpo, he probably won’t get the chance to show Maresca’s team what they missed out on next weekend as the injury he sustained on international duty in recent days will very likely rule him out of Sunday’s fixture.
However, as Aldridge says, the 27-year-old remaining with Liverpool means that he isn’t caught up in what could become a mess of epic proportions at the Etihad.