Premiere League [EPL] Transfer & Speculation Discussion Thread

[Taricoins]

Looking at Liverpool’s list of departing players, Ibrahima Konate—our center back who has moved to Real Madrid on a free transfer—shouldn’t have left that way. At the very least, he should have left for a transfer fee in line with market value.
Liverpool’s center-back positions are now filled only by van Dijk and Gomez. Van Dijk is already 34 years old. Gomez has been inconsistent and has failed to compete for a starting spot in the past. Before the league season officially kicks off, Liverpool must sign a center-back in this transfer window to fill the void and provide a backup option.

And I have been putting an eye on them and it seems like they are not even active on the transfer market,  literally all the signed in players in Jacquet and Munoz was done earlier. Even with Konate the pressure on the defensive line use huge on Virgil, now that Konate is gone I begin to wonder how they are going to cope if they don't get to sign an world class defender to suppose Virgil

[yudi09]

Looking at Liverpool’s list of departing players, Ibrahima Konate—our center back who has moved to Real Madrid on a free transfer—shouldn’t have left that way. At the very least, he should have left for a transfer fee in line with market value.
Liverpool’s center-back positions are now filled only by van Dijk and Gomez. Van Dijk is already 34 years old. Gomez has been inconsistent and has failed to compete for a starting spot in the past. Before the league season officially kicks off, Liverpool must sign a center-back in this transfer window to fill the void and provide a backup option.

And I have been putting an eye on them and it seems like they are not even active on the transfer market,  literally all the signed in players in Jacquet and Munoz was done earlier. Even with Konate the pressure on the defensive line use huge on Virgil, now that Konate is gone I begin to wonder how they are going to cope if they don't get to sign an world class defender to suppose Virgil

Virgil van Dijk is no longer performing well in his role as Liverpool’s center back. Last season, it was very clear that opposing players had identified his weaknesses—beyond his physical decline due to age.
With Konate as his partner, van Dijk’s role could be supported and his weaknesses covered. It never crossed my mind that Liverpool’s current recruitment focus wouldn’t be on defenders or center backs. On February 8, Liverpool signed Jeremy Jacquet from Rennes. His stats at Rennes weren’t particularly impressive, as he only made 21 appearances last season with a rating of 6.8.

[Bigjoe33]

all transfer information for EPL 2026/2027 source:
https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/48955344/premier-league-2026-summer-transfers-all-confirmed-ins-outs-every-club

Liverpool

Player	Status	Reason	Fee
Jérémy Jacquet	IN	From Rennes	£55m
Víctor Muñoz	IN	From Osasuna	£35m
Andrew Robertson	OUT	To Tottenham	Free transfer
Ibrahima Konaté	OUT	To Real Madrid	Free transfer
Mohamed Salah	OUT	Released	-
Rhys Williams	OUT	Released	-
Kareem Ahmed	OUT	Released	-
Emmanuel Airoboma	OUT	Released	-
James Balagizi	OUT	Released	-
DJ Bernard	OUT	Released	-
Oakley Cannonier	OUT	Released	-
Josh Davidson	OUT	Released	-
Terence Mclaughlin-Miles	OUT	Released	-
Jacob Poytress	OUT	Released	-
Carter Pinnington	OUT	To West Bromwich	-

Looking at Liverpool’s list of departing players, Ibrahima Konate—our center back who has moved to Real Madrid on a free transfer—shouldn’t have left that way. At the very least, he should have left for a transfer fee in line with market value.
Liverpool’s center-back positions are now filled only by van Dijk and Gomez. Van Dijk is already 34 years old. Gomez has been inconsistent and has failed to compete for a starting spot in the past. Before the league season officially kicks off, Liverpool must sign a center-back in this transfer window to fill the void and provide a backup option.

Of course, they need to bug players urgently. I don't know how many have been bagged already or whom they are chasing, but obviously, they need it. If we look at the names of players listed there above, except salah and konate and Robertson, those names are not well l known names of regular starters in Liverpool. With these players leaving, the vacuum becomes more dip and must be filled. You can't possibly face a new season with low squad. Not just a complete squad for first eleven, you also need enough bench to help you pull all through. I think what really helped Arsenal win the EPL last season was there squard dept. Not just anyhow players, you really need quality to compete. It's a new coach, am sure he would find a way to balance things before the season starts.

As for Van Dijk, he needs a more powerful back up. I think he is really aging and has no much strength as before. He has really served the club for years , and I think it's time they find a solid replacement if they must solidify there defense

[yudi09]

Looking at Liverpool’s list of departing players, Ibrahima Konate—our center back who has moved to Real Madrid on a free transfer—shouldn’t have left that way. At the very least, he should have left for a transfer fee in line with market value.
Liverpool’s center-back positions are now filled only by van Dijk and Gomez. Van Dijk is already 34 years old. Gomez has been inconsistent and has failed to compete for a starting spot in the past. Before the league season officially kicks off, Liverpool must sign a center-back in this transfer window to fill the void and provide a backup option.

As for Van Dijk, he needs a more powerful back up. I think he is really aging and has no much strength as before. He has really served the club for years , and I think it's time they find a solid replacement if they must solidify there defense

Upamecano. That’s the player I hope can be brought to Anfield.
But Andoni Iraola knows exactly who would be a good fit to recommend to Liverpool’s management. During his time at Bournemouth, Iraola already had his eye on the players he wanted. And even when he was head coach at Rayo, there were players he was interested in.
At the very least, Andoni Iraola should have more than just one or two seasons to build up the strength of Liverpool’s squad.

[Yabani]

Looking at Liverpool’s list of departing players, Ibrahima Konate—our center back who has moved to Real Madrid on a free transfer—shouldn’t have left that way. At the very least, he should have left for a transfer fee in line with market value.
Liverpool’s center-back positions are now filled only by van Dijk and Gomez. Van Dijk is already 34 years old. Gomez has been inconsistent and has failed to compete for a starting spot in the past. Before the league season officially kicks off, Liverpool must sign a center-back in this transfer window to fill the void and provide a backup option.

And I have been putting an eye on them and it seems like they are not even active on the transfer market,  literally all the signed in players in Jacquet and Munoz was done earlier. Even with Konate the pressure on the defensive line use huge on Virgil, now that Konate is gone I begin to wonder how they are going to cope if they don't get to sign an world class defender to suppose Virgil

Both Konaté and Virgil lack the necessary pace for Liverpool's defense. Virgil is 34 and falls short of the required standard for the Premier League.
Konaté is good on the ball, but he is also a slow player. His move to Real Madrid on a free transfer wasn't ideal for Liverpool, though Real Madrid likely wouldn't have signed him had there been a transfer fee involved.
In my opinion, he was signed to be a backup player at Real; I don't think he will be a starter.

[RockBell]

Looking at Liverpool’s list of departing players, Ibrahima Konate—our center back who has moved to Real Madrid on a free transfer—shouldn’t have left that way. At the very least, he should have left for a transfer fee in line with market value.
Liverpool’s center-back positions are now filled only by van Dijk and Gomez. Van Dijk is already 34 years old. Gomez has been inconsistent and has failed to compete for a starting spot in the past. Before the league season officially kicks off, Liverpool must sign a center-back in this transfer window to fill the void and provide a backup option.

And I have been putting an eye on them and it seems like they are not even active on the transfer market,  literally all the signed in players in Jacquet and Munoz was done earlier. Even with Konate the pressure on the defensive line use huge on Virgil, now that Konate is gone I begin to wonder how they are going to cope if they don't get to sign an world class defender to suppose Virgil

Both Konaté and Virgil lack the necessary pace for Liverpool's defense. Virgil is 34 and falls short of the required standard for the Premier League.
Konaté is good on the ball, but he is also a slow player. His move to Real Madrid on a free transfer wasn't ideal for Liverpool, though Real Madrid likely wouldn't have signed him had there been a transfer fee involved.
In my opinion, he was signed to be a backup player at Real; I don't think he will be a starter.

I don't think it's the right choice to try to bring a 34-year-old player to their system. We know that experience matters, but at this time I feel like they should do better than this because where our player is now, they need a player that can actually perform very well and not just name. They need someone who still has juice in them. Why won't he be slow? I'm not just impressed with this kind of move they can do better, and since it's a free transfer, that might just be the reason. And we expect a good performance from all the leagues, not just what is happening now.

[DanWalker]

Looking at Liverpool’s list of departing players, Ibrahima Konate—our center back who has moved to Real Madrid on a free transfer—shouldn’t have left that way. At the very least, he should have left for a transfer fee in line with market value.

Konate already officially joined Real Madrid so there is no point in regretting the past. But losing 27 year old first-team centre back for nothing is not good squad management, imo.

Does it not only weaken the defence?

I think it will also affect future transfer budgets.

Liverpool’s center-back positions are now filled only by van Dijk and Gomez. Van Dijk is already 34 years old. Gomez has been inconsistent and has failed to compete for a starting spot in the past. Before the league season officially kicks off, Liverpool must sign a center-back in this transfer window to fill the void and provide a backup option.

If they rely on Van Dijk for whole season, it would be big mistake. Van Dijk is still world class but that age is really a problem. There are also question about Gomez's injury record, yeah.

It is difficult to fight for title with just "good enough" mentality in this situation. They can't afford a "good enough" mentality anymore. If they are not able to bring in a quality center back this time then it will be another big tactical mistake for their club.

[MAAManda]

Image Source: Transfermarkt

Overall, PL is currently running a deficit in terms of transfers. Several major clubs are truly serious about signing promising players, some of the confirmed signings are:

- Morgan Rogers to Chelsea from Aston Villa for €138M.
- Elliot Anderson to Manchester City from Nottingham Forest for €135M.

In short, the biggest transfer in the PL right now is the Morgan Rogers deal. Do you think we’ll see a transfer with a higher value than that this season?

[blue Snow]

Konate already officially joined Real Madrid so there is no point in regretting the past. But losing 27 year old first-team centre back for nothing is not good squad management, imo.

Does it not only weaken the defence?

Losing Konate will clearly weaken Liverpool’s defense unless he is replaced by a defender of equal or greater quality. However, I’ve heard that Liverpool has already signed Jeremy Jacquet as Konate’s replacement. I don’t know if Jacquet can fill the void left by Konate and help restore Liverpool’s defense to its former strength as part of a partnership with Van Dijk.

[yudi09]

Liverpool’s center-back positions are now filled only by van Dijk and Gomez. Van Dijk is already 34 years old. Gomez has been inconsistent and has failed to compete for a starting spot in the past. Before the league season officially kicks off, Liverpool must sign a center-back in this transfer window to fill the void and provide a backup option.

If they rely on Van Dijk for whole season, it would be big mistake. Van Dijk is still world class but that age is really a problem. There are also question about Gomez's injury record, yeah.

It is difficult to fight for title with just "good enough" mentality in this situation. They can't afford a "good enough" mentality anymore. If they are not able to bring in a quality center back this time then it will be another big tactical mistake for their club.

van Dijk is already 35 years old. I’ve already talked about him. Gomez hasn’t been able to break into the first team so far.
I’m suggesting that Upamecano be brought to Anfield. I’d say that’s my hope now that Liverpool has let Konate go on a free transfer. But with the transfer window still open, Liverpool needs to focus on targets that will help them compete for the Premier League title in the new season.
Other teams are already busy, but Liverpool isn’t yet.

[masulum]

In short, the biggest transfer in the PL right now is the Morgan Rogers deal. Do you think we’ll see a transfer with a higher value than that this season?

I think for now there will be no player transfer that is bigger than those two transfers. If we look at the club spending, most of them right now have more expenses than income. Based on the Transfermarkt data you shared, only Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest are in safe condition because they have more than €100 million surplus. Meanwhile Liverpool, Arsenal, City, Chelsea, and Man United are still in minus. Even if they try to sign more expensive than that transfers, I think it will only give more burden to the club if they cannot sell players for a high price to cover the big spending for one player transfer.

[Futurexxx]

Overall, PL is currently running a deficit in terms of transfers. Several major clubs are truly serious about signing promising players, some of the confirmed signings are:

- Morgan Rogers to Chelsea from Aston Villa for €138M.
- Elliot Anderson to Manchester City from Nottingham Forest for €135M.

In short, the biggest transfer in the PL right now is the Morgan Rogers deal. Do you think we’ll see a transfer with a higher value than that this season?

That is actually a huge amount of money, but nothing should be ruled out completely at this moment because a player like vinicius junior transfer from real madrid to arsenal might go above Morgan Rogers to Chelsea that seems like the highest for now, but it's unlikely that it will happen. What am paying more attention to is how much amount of money these top clubs spend in this summer transfer window, because if the calculations is done by that, then Tottenham Hotspur may be the biggest spender of them all, since they don't want last season experience to repeat itself again.

[MAAManda]

I think for now there will be no player transfer that is bigger than those two transfers. If we look at the club spending, most of them right now have more expenses than income. Based on the Transfermarkt data you shared, only Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest are in safe condition because they have more than €100 million surplus. Meanwhile Liverpool, Arsenal, City, Chelsea, and Man United are still in minus. Even if they try to sign more expensive than that transfers, I think it will only give more burden to the club if they cannot sell players for a high price to cover the big spending for one player transfer.

In addition to those two clubs, there are several others with a profit transfer record, they're Fulham, Hull City, Newcastle & Sunderland. It’s not over €100M it’s just a record of the profit. A unique case can be seen with Crystal Palace, they have several players leave & join, yet all of this occurred without any transfer income or expenditure.

That is actually a huge amount of money, but nothing should be ruled out completely at this moment because a player like vinicius junior transfer from real madrid to arsenal might go above Morgan Rogers to Chelsea that seems like the highest for now, but it's unlikely that it will happen. What am paying more attention to is how much amount of money these top clubs spend in this summer transfer window, because if the calculations is done by that, then Tottenham Hotspur may be the biggest spender of them all, since they don't want last season experience to repeat itself again.

Big teams want to be prepared for the season, I'm not surprised they're doing all of that during the current transfer window. Tottenham Hotspur, they have been one of the biggest spenders so far with €-185,50M. Acquiring Sandro Tonali from Newcastle United for €80M, Mateus Fernandes from WHU for €50M & van Hecke from Brighton for €45M. With all that, I think Tottenham Hotspur will perform better than last season.

[jakdanyel]

Manchester City has extended Khusanov's contract until 2031. He is a defender Guardiola signed last year and he is a quite good talent with a nice level of speed too. It's a good decision to renew contract with him.

Elliot Anderson is the only serious transfer this summer so far for them. Other than that there are a few young names who have been signed. Do you expect more big moves from Enzo Maresca?

[Showlove01]

EPL 2025/2026 won by Arsenal. We will soon face competition season 2026/2027. We will see various early speculation. Team strength map will change a lot, among others:

• Guardiola leaving Man City, can they get replacement coach that equal with Guardiola?
• Xabi Alonso become newcomer in EPL, can Alonso change Chelsea from slumped this season to become champion of season 2026/2027?
• Will Arne Slot get fired or actually bring Liverpool back to win EPL 2026/2027?
• Will Carrick bring MU back to champion 2026/2027 after success saving MU in season 2025/2026?
• Can Arsenal defend their champion title in 2026/2027?
• Will Tottenham succeed to fix their performance in 2026/2027 and take back Europe competition slot?

Arsenal really tried last season and they deserved to win the premier league and they did after several seasons of failure though they almost lost last season trophy again but they were very lucky. As for this coming season we can not really tell how it is going to look like, Manchester city may not be able to get a coach as good as Pep Guardiola. Arne slot was not doing well at some point last season but he realized his mistakes when the season was about ending and that was when they started playing to qualify for campions league. well, we will find out if Michael Carrick will be able to make Manchester united qualify for champions league again.

[Distraction]

There is some good activity on Liverpool side lately. They are looking for signing Bradley Barcola from PSG!

Fabrizio Romano

There is no amount stated related to their future offer yet. He is eager to sign for Liverpool already. He knows that he will be signed for the starting eleven after Salah's departure.

How do you see this likely transfer? Do you think he can reach a level near Salah? Or should I ask about if he needs to go that high? 

[masulum]

How do you see this likely transfer? Do you think he can reach a level near Salah? Or should I ask about if he needs to go that high? 

Every player has different style and every season a player can improve in different way. If Barcola really joins Liverpool this season, we still need to watch his matches before saying he is a good signing or not. he can be better from salah or more worst, we don't know yet. Because sometimes a player getting down after move to other clubs. From current rumor, Liverpool need to pay £145 million if really want to sign him. For me, if a player already want to leave, Liverpool can wait until his contract is closer to the end, just like Real Madrid did with Mbappe. his contract will ends in 2028, if Liverpool don't think this transfer is really important, Liverpool can wait for him next two seasons.

[blue Snow]

Manchester City has extended Khusanov's contract until 2031. He is a defender Guardiola signed last year and he is a quite good talent with a nice level of speed too. It's a good decision to renew contract with him.

Why is Manchester City rushing to extend Khusanov’s contract when his current contract doesn’t expire until 2029? What I mean is, Manchester City should first assess his performance over the next season or two before deciding whether Khusanov deserves a contract extension or not. After all, during Guardiola’s tenure, Khusanov’s performances weren’t particularly impressive, and he even made frequent mistakes. Moreover, Manchester City is now coached by Maresca, whose tactics are certainly different from Guardiola’s, and that will affect Khusanov’s performance.

[Pressurizedem]

How do you see this likely transfer? Do you think he can reach a level near Salah? Or should I ask about if he needs to go that high? 

Every player has different style and every season a player can improve in different way. If Barcola really joins Liverpool this season, we still need to watch his matches before saying he is a good signing or not. he can be better from salah or more worst, we don't know yet. Because sometimes a player getting down after move to other clubs. From current rumor, Liverpool need to pay £145 million if really want to sign him. For me, if a player already want to leave, Liverpool can wait until his contract is closer to the end, just like Real Madrid did with Mbappe. his contract will ends in 2028, if Liverpool don't think this transfer is really important, Liverpool can wait for him next two seasons.

This Barcola guy was really brilliant at the world cup, but I really don't see anything too special about him. The only thing I know he really has is pace and I think if Iriola can properly manage him, he will really be a god signing for the reds. Iriola did well at Bornemount and we also expect him to do well at Liverpool, just that sometimes, when this average team coaches are signed to manage a big team, they sometimes end up flopping and making wrong decisions due to the  pressure of the big club and their fans.
They have signed few players in this current window, and if they can complete the Barcola deal, then I will add them to be among one of the teams that will really compete for the tittle next season just like Chelsea. I don't want to write off Man City, I know they will be very good as well, but if they do not make Rodri sign a new contract, and he end up at Madrid, them the highest I will expect from Maresca is to finish in the top four. Rodri is one of the main players at Man City, and his absence on the peach always expose them so securing and tieing him down to sign a new contract should be their priority.

[letteredhub]

How do you see this likely transfer? Do you think he can reach a level near Salah? Or should I ask about if he needs to go that high? 

Every player has different style and every season a player can improve in different way. If Barcola really joins Liverpool this season, we still need to watch his matches before saying he is a good signing or not. he can be better from salah or more worst, we don't know yet. Because sometimes a player getting down after move to other clubs. From current rumor, Liverpool need to pay £145 million if really want to sign him. For me, if a player already want to leave, Liverpool can wait until his contract is closer to the end, just like Real Madrid did with Mbappe. his contract will ends in 2028, if Liverpool don't think this transfer is really important, Liverpool can wait for him next two seasons.

Splashing £145million on Barcola is a big waste of money because he is not worth up to that figure. I agree that transfer on players are inflated this days, but for PSG to put such an unrealistic amount on his head, it shows that they don't want to sell, it would be better if Liverpool look elsewhere.

Barcola is a good player, but he is not up to the level of Mohammed Salah, until he can prove that by scoring more than 20 goals a season consistently for like five years and above, which was the main reason I believe that anyone that is brought in to replace Salah has a very big shoe to fill.