Liverpool have fallen far from their perchHe oversaw a total reconstruction of Arne Slot’s squad - adding £450m worth of talent. Liverpool broke the British transfer record TWICE in deals for Flori...
Liverpool have fallen far from their perch
He oversaw a total reconstruction of Arne Slot’s squad - adding £450m worth of talent. Liverpool broke the British transfer record TWICE in deals for Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak.
Landmark deals were also completed for Jeremie Frimpong, Giovanni Leoni, Milos Kerkez and Hugo Ekitike. The Merseysiders could not put a foot wrong - being tipped by 99 percent of pundits to defend their title.
Winning the first five games of the Premier League season - even not playing their best - was the optimum start to the new campaign.
But then the results stopped flowing as easily. Slot’s team looked sluggish, short of attacking intent and most of the new signings struggled to gel.
Suddenly it looked like the tail end of the season was not merely an easing up on the part of the country’s champion team - but the beginning of a prolonged decline.
At one stage they lost six out of seven Premier League games - enduring a run of historically bad proportions.
Liverpool LOSE Marc Guehi battle
And now there’s no doubt the club would be content to merely get back into the Champions League because their Premier League title aspirations are dead in the water.
There are many reasons why Slot’s team haven’t been able to regain their title-winning form. And one could be the fact that Marc Guehi wasn’t signed.
Hughes tried and failed to add the former Crystal Palace captain on deadline day - despite agreeing a £35m fee.
But Palace backed out - even though Guehi only had a year left on his deal. Liverpool went into the season a man short at centre-back - and lost their exclusive shot at signing Guehi into the bargain.
Rather than holding out for a free transfer to Anfield in summer 2026 the England international accepted a blockbuster salary to join Pep Guardiola at Manchester City this week.
“This move feels like the culmination of all the hard work I have put into my career,” he told the club’s website after securing a £20m move.
“I am now at the best club in England and part of an unbelievable squad of players. It feels good to be able to say that.”
Liverpool no longer the best team in England
And it’s this part that will sting Liverpool the most. Guehi may well be playing to the gallery - because on results and recent performances - there is no real case to be made that City are the best the country’s got to offer. Right now it’s probably Arsenal.
And this statement exposes a deeper truth about how far Liverpool, Slot and Hughes have fallen over the last few months. There should have been NO QUESTION this season that Liverpool were the best team in the land.
Combine their title-winning form with the supposed quality of the signings made last summer and you should have had a team capable of sustaining major honours season after season after season.
Instead it looks like one and done; Slot won the title in his first season and he will be very lucky to experience that again.
From the cusp of domestic dominance Liverpool have become just one more member of the chasing pack - totally ordinary in their play despite the money lavished on the squad.
Guehi might be wrong that City are the best team in England but he has inadvertently hit on an inconvenient truth for the Reds.
It’s not Liverpool. And it should be. For that Slot, Hughes and this squad of underperforming top-paid stars need to take responsibility.
Category: General Sports
