This is not the first time in Fenway Sports Group’s near-16-year tenure at Liverpool that a transfer window has ended with fans and pundits convinced the first-team squad has been left short.
But the biggest difference between now and much of the Americans’ reign is that, these days, the doubters are more likely than ever to be right.
That was rarely the case between 2016 and 2020, when a widely envied transfer operation built a team that arguably became the best in the world for a period under Jurgen Klopp.
However, the business done in the years since has made it tougher to believe that the recruitment staff remain “the smartest men in the room”, as has been previously suggested.
And the latest evidence that things have changed for the worse has been provided by a somewhat chaotic 2026 summer window that, for many, has ended in disappointment.
