Liverpool are heading straight for an unbelievable transfer disaster. How has it come to this, exactly?
When Jurgen Klopp picked his final few Liverpool teams, he did all he could to show off the next generation of Reds. Homegrown stars who could help carry this club into the future. Klopp’s kids and all that.
There were massive talents in that side, players who looked destined for the very top of the game. Two years later, they’ve basically all gone.
In fact, one of the few still knocking about is Harvey Elliott and Liverpool did what they could to get rid of him in 2025. They failed in the most ridiculous fashion, essentially robbing him of a year of his career and completely tanking his value.
The Tyler Morton and Caoimhin Kelleher sales look absolutely ridiculous in hindsight. Both have quickly established themselves as brilliant top-flight players and Liverpool bagged under £35m for the pair of them.
Now that money wouldn’t get you one of them.
But the most egregious one? Jarell Quansah. Quansah was playing at such a level across Klopp’s final campaign that he actually forced Ibrahima Konate out of the team - that’s the centre-back who just signed for Real Madrid. That one.
The homegrown academy product was an absolute certain to replace Virgil van Dijk at the heart of Liverpool’s defence. Then in came Richard Hughes and Arne Slot.
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Slot gave Quansah 45 minutes of football on the opening day of the Premier League season. He wasn’t impressed, and so he binned him off - the centre-back played under 500 minutes of league football that season.
And so it wasn’t too much of a shock that Liverpool were willing to sell him in 2025. It was all signed-off on and Quansah went to Bayer Leverkusen for a reported £35m (BBC).
A terrible deal, on the face of it, if not for the buyback clause. Per the Athletic, Liverpool retained the ability to re-sign their homegrown international if he were to recapture his best form and they’d get him for roughly £60m.
Essentially, Liverpool would end up paying Leverkusen £25m to guarantee his development. Not complaints here. Especially as Quansah did do just that and played well enough in the Bundesliga to get into England’s World Cup squad.
But here we are, in August 2026, and now the Athletic, among others, report that Arsenal are pushing to sign Quansah. Liverpool’s buyback has expired this summer, apparently, and now the Gunners are free to make offers to Leverkusen.
Even worse, Quansah is keen! But why wouldn’t he be. Liverpool told him he wasn’t good enough, despite everything he’d already proven, based on 45 minutes against Ipswich Town. They sold him, virtually giving up.
Now here’s the real situation: Liverpool will have taken a homegrown defender who was already proven in the Premier League and found a way to get him to Arsenal for £35m. Less than they paid Bournemouth for the very-much-not-homegrown Milos Kerkez.
That is a disaster, no matter how you look at it. A truly shocking deal and turn of events that costs the club a homegrown player at a time when they need them, a brilliant defender at a time when they need them, and strengthens a rival when they really, really don’t need that.
From top to bottom, awful.