Two Arne Slot mistakes feature in worst sales of the season as Liverpool, Chelsea slammed | OneFootball

Liverpool supposedly won the transfer window after record-smashing expenditure while also making the fourth-most money from player sales.

Missing out on Marc Guehi was the only thing that stopped it from being an A+ for the Premier League champions. They signed the second-best striker in the league, one of the most promising attacking midfielders in Europe, and got decent money for Luis Diaz and Jarell Quansah…we thought.

As it turns out, Liverpool should not have sold Diaz or Quansah, and most of their big-money buys have turned out to be a bit crap.

As we head into the run-in, it feels like an apt time to pick the worst sales made by Premier League clubs last summer. We have eight of them.

Luis Diaz (Liverpool to Bayern Munich, £60.5m)

Football opinions are allowed to change. Anthony Gordon for £45m was a joke…I thought. It turns out Newcastle United landed a fantastic player.

Liverpool getting over £60million for Luis Diaz was a masterstroke from the Reds…I also thought. I no longer think that. Liverpool didn’t get fleeced, but losing Diaz has made them far worse than anyone could have predicted.

Initially, the feeling was that Liverpool fleeced Bayern Munich. Diaz turned 29 in January, was in the final two years of his contract, and he actually wanted to leave. That is important to mention, as it obviously forced Liverpool’s hand. Still, as they so often do, they got the absolute maximum possible fee for the Colombian winger, who was instrumental in the club’s Premier League title win in Arne Slot’s first season.

Losing Diaz might have been inevitable with Bayern interested, but Liverpool will probably wish they had tried a little harder to convince him to stay, rather than focusing their full attention on negotiations with the Bundesliga giants, which were always only going to end one way.

Liverpool are not just missing Diaz’s goals and assists; his presence also allowed the Reds to play their optimal system and added a huge threat out of possession. He works his socks off, and losing him – along with Darwin Nunez – has damaged Liverpool significantly in that respect.

Slot’s system last season was all about the fundamentals, and that changed after winning the title, with the addition of more luxury players like Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak. Mohamed Salah’s responsibilities moved him out of his comfort zone, while the footballing anomaly that is Trent Alexander-Arnold also departed. Dominik Szoboszlai has filled in at right-back at times to plug that gap, but that creates a void in midfield, leaving Liverpool with even less energy when pressing opposition defences and their No.6.

Diaz is now part of arguably the most potent attack in world football, scoring 23 goals and providing 18 assists in 40 games, while Harry Kane (49 goals in 41 games) and Michael Olise (45 goal involvements in 41 games) are performing at a Ballon d’Or level for Bayern.

Those numbers from Diaz are devastating, and Liverpool missing that – on top of his superb work rate – has made them a much worse team this season.

Jarell Quansah (Liverpool to Bayer Leverkusen, £30m)

Back-to-back Liverpool players helps underline why their season has been such a disappointment. Not only did Slot sell all of his attacking energy, but he also got rid of a talented young centre-back without bringing in Guehi from Crystal Palace.

As a youth player, the Reds pressed the pure profit button to help fund their luxurious summer spending. At the time, £30m was deemed good money for a back-up defender, yet so many factors have quickly made it look like a poor piece of business.

Hindsight is a wonderful, wonderful thing, we know. However, Giovanni Leoni’s knee exploded on his debut, and he and an injury-prone Joe Gomez were Slot’s only depth behind starting centre-backs Ibrahima Konate and Virgil van Dijk.

The lack of depth is one of the biggest contributing factors to Liverpool’s pitiful title defence. Slot has been unable to take Konate out of the firing line and, had Quansah stayed, he would have come straight in for the Frenchman and probably done a lot better. He couldn’t have done much worse. Konate has managed to drag the imperious Van Dijk down with him as well.

Quansah is an excellent centre-back option but also a capable right-back. Szoboszlai has been deployed there many times as some sort of Alexander-Arnold heir, and it’s not really worked to Liverpool’s benefit. Jeremie Frimpong has been suspect when fit, and Conor Bradley also suffered a serious knee injury.

It just wasn’t worth the £30m Liverpool got for Quansah, was it?

Valentin Barco (Brighton to Strasbourg, £8.66m)

Brighton & Hove Albion rarely make a transfer misstep – but this is quite a big one. On one hand, the Seagulls deserve praise for identifying and buying Barco, but he was never given a chance and will reportedly make the natural step to Chelsea for big money at the end of the season.

When Brighton bought Barco from Boca Juniors for around £8m in January 2024, he was a teenage left-back, more than capable of playing as a wing-back, with the world at his feet. He only played seven times for the south coast club before a disappointing nine-game loan spell at Sevilla. And that is how he landed at Strasbourg in France, joining on an initial six-month loan a year after signing for Brighton.

Fast forward another year and Barco has established himself as one of the best young midfielders in France. He is also now managed by Gary O’Neil, which is amusing.

Barco recently received his second Argentina cap and should be in Lionel Scaloni’s World Cup squad. Transfermarkt says he is worth €35m (£30m), which will sting Brighton. With Chelsea involved, you can assume he would cost double, but they are buying Barco from themselves, so, on paper, it might not look too bad for the Seagulls. Still, they sold a top player for pennies, and that is annoying.

Lloyd Kelly (Newcastle to Juventus, £14.5m)

Kelly goes down as £14.5m pure profit for Newcastle United, which, in an era all about Profit and Sustainability, is a win. But from a purely footballing perspective, this was not good business.

Unfortunate to miss Thomas Tuchel’s recent England squad, Kelly is enjoying a career-best season at Juventus and is one of many Premier League players to elevate their game to another level in Serie A.

Newcastle’s defensive depth has been completely depleted at times this season. Fabian Schar has been out since January with a broken ankle, Lewis Miley’s ‘dead leg’ has seen him miss the last 13 games, Emil Krafth underwent knee surgery earlier this year, Lewis Hall missed time in October, Tino Livramento was out in October, December and the first three months of 2026. Dan Burn had an actual punctured lung, and Sven Botman and Kieran Trippier both missed over a month at the same time. Livramento and Hall have only played 90 minutes together five times this season!

Not only could Newcastle have done with having Kelly around to help deal with the injury crisis, but the fact he has been so good for Juventus means that, even without so many injuries, he would have been a very valuable player in a very poor season for the Magpies.

Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (Chelsea to Everton, £25m)

The entire Dewsbury-Hall at Chelsea debacle is the real inclusion here. Signed from Leicester City by his former manager Enzo Maresca, the England World Cup hopeful spent most of his sole season at Stamford Bridge on the periphery, mainly getting opportunities in the Europa Conference League.

Dewsbury-Hall did the right thing for his career by moving to Everton, for whom he has been a revelation.

Chelsea’s midfield hasn’t been rubbish by any stretch this season, but there has been a lack of depth at times, with Romeo Lavia and Dario Essugo constantly injured, while Moises Caicedo has served two Premier League suspensions spanning four games.

Not only would the depth Dewsbury-Hall provides be useful in these situations, but his performances for Everton this season suggest he would improve a team currently in disarray. He is better, albeit older, than Andrey Santos. Enzo Fernandez wants to join Real Madrid. There’s no doubt the 27-year-old is good enough to play for Chelsea. Everton got a steal.

Martial Godo (Fulham to Strasbourg, £6m)

Strasbourg are the true benefactors of some poor sales decisions from Premier League clubs. Barco and Martial Godo have played an integral part in an excellent 2025/26 campaign. They are currently eighth in Ligue 1, six points off a Champions League place, and are still in the Conference League – albeit 2-0 down to Mainz heading into next week’s quarter-final second leg.

Former Dartford and Margate youngster Godo was snapped up by Fulham in a solid piece of scouting in March 2022 when he was only 18. He impressed for the club’s Under-21s but played only six times for the first team, racking up a gargantuan 21 minutes in the Premier League.

Godo did register an assist in an FA Cup third-round win over Watford, but he was not given a proper shot.

Strasbourg took a punt on Godo, landing him for a measly £6m, and what a signing he has been. With eight goals and two assists in Ligue 1, four goals and two assists in the Conference League, and two goals and one assist in the Coupe de France, he has been a brilliant bargain this season.

Fulham were crying out for a wide forward all last summer. They sold a very good one for peanuts. D’oh.

Matheus Cunha (Wolves to Man Utd, £62.5m)

Wolverhampton Wanderers didn’t have much choice in the matter, but it’s what they did with the money – and just how rubbish they have been since losing Cunha – that stands out.

It’s been a shocking season for the Midlands club, who have been all but relegated to the Championship since November, yet, remarkably, you could argue that Rob Edwards is doing a decent job. They could end up snagging 19th place, which would be an achievement when you consider where Wolves were when Edwards arrived – and a damning indictment of an awful year for Burnley.

Relegation candidates having an X-factor, particularly in attack, can be what keeps them in the Premier League, and that was evidently the case with Wolves and Cunha. They were never going to recruit a player of the same calibre, and finding a gem capable of reaching that level is a monumental ask. Just ask Leeds United after losing Raphinha.

Cunha was linked with an exit halfway through 2024/25 and ended up signing a new contract to delay further rumours until the summer. Manchester United acted decisively and triggered the £62.5m release clause in the Brazilian forward’s deal. As we said, there wasn’t much Wolves could do.

We have also noted that replacing Cunha was a tall order, but just how badly Wolves botched it merits criticism. Jhon Arias – who joined in the summer and left in January – cost around £15m. Fer Lopez – who has done almost literally nothing – came in for just under £20m. Tolu Arokodare – the eighth-worst signing of the season – cost £23.4m. And Jorgen Strand Larsen – who was at Molineux last season with Cunha – was signed permanently for £23m and flipped for double that in January. Not good.

The Cunha transfer is the odd one out, hence it being near the end, but it still deserves its place.

Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg (Tottenham Hotspur to Marseille, £11.4m)

When did Tottenham Hotspur become completely useless? In 2024/25. When did Hojbjerg leave Spurs? July 2024. Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not.

That was a loan deal. Hojbjerg permanently left Spurs last summer after a decent season at Marseille.

It’s blatantly obvious that everything boils down to the Dane leaving. Spurs finished fifth under Ange Postecoglou in 2023/24. Hojbjerg left, and they finished 17th, with Postecoglou sacked. Now they are on their third manager of the season and facing relegation from the Premier League.