Although Jurgen Klopp and Pep Lijnders have been working for years to make Liverpool unpredictable, their plans for this summer have not precisely come to fruition.
During what has been a chaotic and really uneven summer, the club has changed from being one of the most comfortably predictable around to one that is increasingly difficult to second-guess. And although a dash of uncertainty might occasionally be a nice addition for those on the outside looking in, recent events involving the Reds have more and more people scratching their brains in an attempt to make sense of them.
It’s fair to say that after serving as Michael Edwards’ right-hand man for about 18 months and succeeding him as sporting director, Julian Ward’s external appointment of relatively unknown Jorg Schmadtke—who was persuaded to come out of retirement at the age of 59—was not the most obvious choice.
The fact that the German only agreed to a short-term contract at the beginning of June to get Liverpool through the transfer window did not support the notion that the club was adopting a longer-term, more comprehensive approach to their football plan. A transfer window that has gotten harder to manage and forecast since the beginning of July has less than a week left.
It is uncertain whether Schmadtke will be employed after his present contract expires. You might think that there are more questions than answers.
The rise of the Saudi Pro League this summer was an unexpected development across Planet Football, as were the abrupt and shocking departures of Fabinho and Jordan Henderson. It has so far proven to be quite difficult to replace two key midfield players who helped Liverpool win every major trophy available between 2019 and 2022 while playing a total of 711 times during their time on Merseyside.
Romeo Lavia’s negotiations with Southampton, who turned down three offers, prompted Liverpool to change course and make an absolutely amazing £111 million offer for the player.
o. That amount would have been a British record fee and £36 million higher than the club record now held by the £75 million paid for Virgil van Dijk in January 2018.
That came as a surprise earlier this month for a team constrained by the rigorously self-sustaining model enforced by owners Fenway Sports Group, especially without the Champions League windfall this season. However, the Ecuadorian international’s eventual preference for Chelsea was not. Before Caicedo eventually relocated from Brighton to London to join what we are informed is his boyhood club, there was once again additional ambiguity around that transaction a fortnight ago.
Even if there were few sobs at missing out on Lavia during the Reds’ summer transfer window, it was another unexpected development for teenagers with less than 30 League under his belt at a price of about £60 million.
Additionally, you might want to ask them for Saturday’s Lottery numbers if they thought Wataru Endo would be the player to enter after both negotiations for Caicedo and Lavia failed. Even if the £16 million transfer fee may turn out to be a smart move, the Japan international’s arrival last week was still very much a left-field decision.
However, what happens next for Liverpool’s full season and beyond must be completely foreseeable. Since it became known that Saudi Pro League winners Al-Ittihad were launching a “all-out” charm effort to sign the Egyptian, Mohamed Salah’s prospective departure has become very real very quickly.
