Liverpool losers as Liverpool losers winners as FSG’s ineos exposes é

With the benefit of hindsight, Manchester United, not Liverpool, were the winners of this summer’s transfer window as their $214 million quartet shine…

in summer, man utd’S transfer business as distribution opinion They easily found themselves in our losing column.

Meanwhile, it was hard not to be uber-positive about it LiverpoolWhen he made a great statement, business With their m 400m+ overhaul.

But eight games into the 2025/26 campaign, on-field performances have forced a significant U-turn in terms of the Premier League giants’ respective jobs.

With the notable exception of Mark Gehey, Liverpool have secured most of their top transfer targets in key positions. They also cash in through savvy market opportunities Jeral Konsa and Harvey Elliott offloaded and returned a routewhile Darwin News and Luis Diaz sold for large fees.

Given how well Diaz and Kavanagh have been performing for Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen, there’s an argument that they shouldn’t have been sold, but Liverpool got a pass thanks to the safety net of a buy-back clause for their best attacker, Cody Gakpo, at left and centre-back.

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There’s also no doubt that Hugo Iktyk has been a smart buy as he’s comfortably been Liverpool’s best performer this summer, although that’s where the positivity ends.

Liverpool broke British transfer records twice in the summer to sign Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz, but each player has been a big drop this season.

Isak is suffering the lingering effects of an inactive summer, and the Man Utd game, which Ern Slott said was properly officiated, was another non-event for the former Newcastle United striker, who will inevitably be fine even if it takes a few months.

It’s a similar story with Wertz, who has at least shown flashes of what he’s capable of, but hasn’t been put in the right positions to shine and isn’t currently doing enough to mitigate the scrutiny directed at him.

There are more pressing concerns throughout, As highlighted as “weakness” by Insan et albecause Milos Kerkes and Jeremy Frimpong were nowhere near the level previously set by Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold in those positions.

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Although Ibrahima Conte had one of the better games of the season against Man Utd, Liverpool’s inability to land Gehey has had a negative impact as Virgil van Dijk has been miles away from him, thus ensuring their defense is incredibly fragile.

So, in this summer window, FSG were far from transfer masters and were in fact very incompetent as they forced through too many changes in a single window, signing the wrong player profile in some positions and ignoring obvious weaknesses in other departments (ie at centre-back).

Meanwhile, Man Utd and Inos, are currently smelling the roses after the summer window.

Don’t get me wrong, they are far from perfect. Their failure to sign a No.6 continues to bite them as they were still too easy to play against Liverpool and were lucky not to be penalised.

There’s also a bit of a ‘bomb squad’ situation here, with Jadon Sancho and Alejandro Garnacho returning to form elsewhere, but they were dead weight at Old Trafford and Inves was at least patient enough to get a straight fee/loan with the responsibility of buying deals for those players.

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And conversely, every single one of UTD’s summer signings has had an immediate positive impact this season.

It’s all too soon to move on from Senne Lemmens being the messiah, but it’s already clear that he’s a clear upgrade over Andre Ona, as his quiet presence has made a huge difference.

Brian Mabiomo and Matthies Cunha are showing they have the ability and mentality to perform for their new club against Liverpool and thrive at Man Utd.

And Benjamin Sisko, too, was really strong against Liverpool as he picked up where he left off before the international break when he scored in two straight games.

Cisco has the physical attributes to eventually become a great man-at-hand striker, with Cunha and Mebemo giving Amorim the advantage of being able to adapt his forward line to deal with different styles of opposition.

So, it is clear that Man UTD’s squad is stronger than before this summer’s transfer window and their success rate with their signings is high. In Liverpool’s case it is the exact opposite.

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