Liverpool get last laugh with signing projected to be better than Man City counterpart | OneFootball

Liverpool and their former sporting director, Richard Hughes, will have the last laugh with a new Reds signing projected to become a superior player to his counterpart at Manchester City.

Hughes was derided at various points throughout his tenure as Liverpool’s sporting director. The Scot departed for Al-Hilal when the 2026 summer transfer window closed, and left with much of the fanbase questioning his decisions.

The centre-back position underwent great change during Hughes’ time at the club, and within just the last 15 months, Giovanni Leoni arrived, a move for Marc Guehi collapsed and was then ignored in the next window, Jeremy Jacquet signed, Ibrahima Konate left via free agency, and Ronald Araujo joined on loan.

Rewind the clock back to the summer of 2025 and Liverpool were on the cusp of landing England international Guehi for £35m.

However, when Crystal Palace failed to sign an adequate replacement in time, the plug was pulled. Six months later, Liverpool stood idly by as Man City landed Guehi for £20m.

At that same time, the Reds instead placed their faith in Jacquet, agreeing to pay Rennes £55m plus £5m in add-ons.

Jacquet would go on to arrive in England six months later, and since donning a Liverpool shirt, he’s looked a class apart despite being just 21 years of age.

Now, The Times’ Paul Joyce has detailed why Liverpool will ultimately be deemed to have made the right decisions on all three of Guehi, Jacquet and Konate, with the much-maligned Hughes a genius after all.

Liverpool get every centre-back decision right

Joyce wrote: ‘It should be remembered now that not only did the fee [for Jacquet] raise eyebrows, given he had only played 33 senior games for Rennes, but last January’s deal came at a time when City had signed Marc Guéhi from Crystal Palace for an initial £20m only months before his contract was due to expire.

‘Liverpool had tried to sign Guéhi for £35m at the end of the summer transfer window (having first prioritised a deal for Giovanni Leoni of Parma, another young centre back, for £26m) only for the deal to collapse on deadline day.

‘City’s subsequent move for Guéhi prompted some Liverpool supporters to decry the club’s strategy as short-sighted.

‘Instead, it could be argued that Hughes was actually thinking long-term at a time when he knew he was already leaving the club.

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‘While Guéhi represented a plug in and play option given his Premier League experience, City also offered him about £300,000 a week in wages. Over the course of a 5½-year deal, that makes the overall package £100m for someone who will be 31 when the contract expires.

‘Liverpool feel Jacquet can develop into a better all-round player and the collapse of Ibrahima Konaté’s contract talks at the end of last season must be seen through that lens, too.

‘By all accounts, Jacquet was being viewed as a first-team player and ceding to Konaté’s desire for a high wage after a difficult season in which his output dipped for a variety of reasons became a problem the club felt they could do without.’