News Thread

Liverpool’s season seems to be falling apart across the board. Whether it be a dismal league campaign, shocking defeats in the Champions League or the weekly spectacle of Jürgen Klopp taking his frustration out on the English press, it certainly hasn’t been an easy period of time for fans of the Anfield club. However, hope is only ever just around the corner in football, and while Liverpool may be a mess on the pitch, fans may be growing confident of the club fixing its issues off it, with some smart signings in the coming summer transfer window. 

Jürgen Klopp has great respect for the turnaround Erik Ten Hag has achieved at Manchester United this season, but the Liverpool manager will have absolutely no problem bursting their bubble when they make the trip to Anfield on Sunday. And the 55-year-old tactician admitted as much at a press conference on Friday afternoon. 

Borussia Dortmund midfielder Jude Bellingham may not yet be the best player in the world, but he’s certainly one of the most popular. Like Christian Pulisic, Jadon Sancho and Erling Haaland before him, the Bundesliga talent has lit up German football with ease and is now the subject of reported interest from just about every major club in European football. 

Could Liverpool star Roberto Firmino soon play in Major League Soccer? Well, it is complicated. Transfermarkt can confirm a report by MLSSoccer.com writer Tom Bogert that St. Louis CITY SC are interested in the Brazilian striker, who will be a free agent signing this summer. St. Louis CITY SC, however, will have to fight off competition from other MLS teams and Italian giants Inter Milan to make the deal happen. 

Liverpool would have needed a miracle to overturn a three-goal deficit when they made the trip to Spain to face Real Madrid in the Last 16 of the Champions League, just two weeks after losing the first leg 5-2 in England. Divine inspiration, unsurprisingly, never arrived for Jürgen Klopp’s side as they lost the match 1-0 and continued a worrying trend that has seen the club pick up just four victories from their last 10 games in all competitions. 

The richest and most valuable league in the world has added another €100 million in market value. Overall, 171 players saw their market values updated. The cumulative squad values of the 20 Premier League clubs now amount to around €10.4 billion. The biggest winners are Arsenal, Brighton, and Manchester United, while Liverpool, Tottenham, and Chelsea have to accept the biggest losses. Despite massive upgrades for winter transfers such as Enzo Fernández and Mykhaylo Mudryk, the bottom line for the Blues is a minus as several players, including Kai Havertz (-€10m) were downgraded.

Manchester City head into this weekend’s Premier League action knowing that they’ll have to get the better of one of their biggest rivals in recent years if they have any chance of wresting control of the title race off of Mikel Arteta’s impressive Arsenal side. On Saturday, Pep Guardiola’s team welcome Liverpool to the Etihad in what may well be a must-win game for Man City. 

Arsenal face a daunting task on Sunday in their quest to win their first Premier League trophy for more than 20 years. With an eight-point gap that could be cut to five should Manchester City win their game in hand, Mikel Arteta’s side know that anything but all three points in their forthcoming trip to Anfield to face Liverpool could lead to Pep Guardiola’s reigning champions catching the young contenders. 

Is there a chance that former Köln and Wolfsburg sporting director Jörg Schmadtke could come out of retirement and take over as the new sporting director at Liverpool? According to a report by The Telegraph, Schmadtke is the surprise candidate to become the new strong man next to German head coach Jürgen Klopp. 

Alexis Mac Allister is in demand, and if one believes Monday’s reports, he could be on the verge of joining Liverpool from Brighton in a deal that could be announced this week. After all, an initial report by South American transfer expert César Luis Merlo that Mac Allister has a deal in place to join the Reds was quickly confirmed by Fabrizio Romano. According to those reports, Mac Allister has signed a contract until 2028, and Liverpool will be paying less than the initially reported £45-50m (€52-57m) for the 24-year-old Argentine World Cup winner.