John Aldridge has implored the Liverpool hierarchy not to make one potentially ‘insane’ decision in the final two weeks of the summer transfer window.
There continues to be intense speculation over several players at Anfield as the 1 September deadline approaches, with Cody Gakpo among those being linked with a prospective exit from L4.
There have been claims from Dutch media that the 27-year-old would be open to joining Tottenham Hotspur amid strong interest from the north London club, and TEAMtalk reported that Andoni Iraola would be prepared to sanction his departure if the Reds can bring in a replacement winger this month.
However, Aldridge is praying that Liverpool don’t cash in on the Netherlands international – or indeed any senior players – so that they have the quality and quantity within their squad to improve discernible on last season’s disapponting fifth-place finish.
Aldridge: Liverpool would be ‘insane’ to let Gakpo leave
The former Reds striker wrote in his latest column for the Liverpool Echo: ‘I’m not saying Liverpool need to have a squad capable of challenging for the title, but we have to give ourselves a chance of a top-four finish, so the talk about Cody Gakpo potentially leaving is worrying. Liverpool cannot sell him. It would be insane to do that.’
Aldridge went on to say that ‘Liverpool need to be buying players – not selling them’.
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Liverpool surely won’t let Gakpo leave unless Barcola arrives
The columnist’s concerns are most understandable – the Reds will be juggling four competitions again this season, and there’ll be an expectation to improve upon a dreadful 2025/26 campaign, so ensuring that there’s adequate depth througout the squad is essential.
Gakpo might be playing in one of the more generously stacked positions in the team, but he showed with his fine performances against Monaco and Como that he still has plenty to offer for his current club and seems determined to atone for last term’s poor return of just nine goals in 52 games.
Liverpool’s decision on the Dutchman will likely be contingent on the fate of their pursuit of Bradley Barcola. If the Paris Saint-Germain winger doesn’t end up at Anfield, we can’t envisage FSG signing off on an exit for our number 18.
However, if the Frenchman is signed and Spurs put £70m on the table for Gakpo, LFC might be prepared to take the money for the latter, particularly as it’d then maintain the current permissible maximum of 17 non-homegrown players for our Premier League squad.
As of now, we fully agree with Aldridge that selling the Netherlands winger without bringing in a replacement would be foolish in the extreme from Reds bosses, and we’d be almost certain that’s the view Iraola would have.