Why Has Liverpool’s Summer Been So Quiet? | OneFootball

Last season was a terrible one for Liverpool, with the players and manager understandably struggling to cope with the shocking loss of Diogo Jota a little over a year ago. In the end, the lack of decent performances on the pitch cost the manager his job, forcing the owners to bring in Andoni Iraola as Arne Slot’s replacement.

The Spaniard comes with a decent reputation and the feeling of many that he’s ready to break out into the upper echelons of the game. What he needs, though, is players. The lack of signings thus far should have us all a little concerned, I fear.

The World Cup

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There is no getting away from it: the eyes of the footballing world have been on the United States of America, Canada and Mexico over the past month or so. Whilst I personally didn’t watch it, not wanting to be complicit in helping to sportswash the reputation of Donald Trump, I was very much on my own on that front. Virtually everyone else turned their eyes to North America and Mexico, which will have included agents and other top-level professionals. Even when players that the Reds might want to have signed were no longer there, they will have been on holiday.

Last night, Spain managed to overcome a ridiculously cynical Argentina side in order to lift the trophy for the second time. It came on the back of the Spaniards having also won the European Championship two years ago. That draws the tournament to a close, meaning that domestic teams no longer have any excuses not to get out there and make signings that will bolster the options that Iraola has available to him. More than anything, the hope has to be that we can bring in some wingers, given how much the Spaniard likes to rotate them during matches.

Turmoil Behind the Scenes

One of the other issues that the Reds have got right now is that there is a degree of turmoil going on behind the scenes. We know that Michael Edwards was working largely for Fenway Sports Group, as opposed to being specifically for Liverpool, but his departure from his role as Chief Executive of Football won’t be helping decisions get made any faster. Then there’s the fact that Richard Hughes, the man who has been our Sporting Director for the last few years, is reportedly already in line for a move to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in order to work for Al-Hilal.

Whilst the reports suggest that Hughes is fully focused on the work he needs to do for the Reds, who amongst us hasn’t been distracted by a new job that’s on the horizon? It isn’t exactly outrageous to suggest that his mind might not be 100% on the task at hand. The good news is that we’re already signed Víctor Muñoz and Jérémy Jacquet has arrived after having been signed in January, but neither have Premier League experience and two players alone will not allow this unbalanced Liverpool squad to challenge for the title, no matter how good the manager is.

The Season Starts Later

If you were in the mood to be generous with the Liverpool hierarchy, you might point to the fact that the Premier League season starts slightly later than normal this year. The World Cup has pushed things back by a couple of weeks, perhaps because of all of the hydration breaks. It means that the need to get players in in time has also been pushed back, so the likes of Richard Hughes and others working behind the scenes are probably a bit more relaxed than supporters are. Having said that, it’s still not great to be needing to do so much work in such a short space of time.

Thanks to the departure of Mohamed Salah, our attack needed bolstering even before Iraola and his heavy usage of wingers came on the scene. We are defensively light, with Conor Bradley’s injury and Virgil van Dijk’s age both concerns, to say nothing of Ibrahima Konaté no longer being at the club. Although the midfield looks okay on the surface, rumours of a Curtis Jones departure and Alexis Mac Allister, who looked like he was tugging a parachute last season, making it all the way to the final of the World Cup both mean that it won’t take much for us to look light there, too.