Liverpool's New Defensive Cornerstone: Jeremy Jacquet's Journey
Liverpool have their new defensive cornerstone – and he arrives with both a price tag and a point to prove.
Jeremy Jacquet has finally completed his £60m move from Rennes, a deal agreed in January and rubber-stamped on Wednesday, and will walk straight into Andoni Iraola’s first pre-season as Liverpool manager. Shoulder surgery threatened to stall the story before it began. Instead, the 20-year-old reports for duty fully fit, eager and, by his own admission, living “a big dream”.
A record fee and a rebuilt defence
Liverpool will pay an initial £55m, with a further £5m in add-ons, making Jacquet the second most expensive defender in the club’s history. Only Virgil van Dijk, the £75m signing from Southampton in January 2018, has cost more.
That comparison is impossible to ignore. Van Dijk arrived as the finished article, a leader to transform a fragile back line. Jacquet comes as the next generation: raw, highly rated, and now expected to grow in the shadow – and under the guidance – of the club captain.
The Frenchman’s deal runs for five years with an option of a sixth. Liverpool see him as a long-term pillar, not a short-term patch. He will compete for minutes with Joe Gomez, Giovanni Leoni and Van Dijk, who is expected to join the summer tour of the United States after the Netherlands’ World Cup exit in the round of 32 on Monday.
From operating table to AXA pitch
This transfer could easily have taken a darker turn. Shortly after his move was agreed on deadline day earlier this year, Jacquet’s season was abruptly cut short. In early February, during Rennes’ 3-1 defeat to Lens in Ligue 1, he fell awkwardly in the second half and left the pitch in clear pain. The diagnosis was brutal for a young defender on the brink of a major move: shoulder surgery required, season over.
He went under the knife a few weeks later. For many, that would have meant a cautious summer, a delayed integration, a slow introduction to a new league. Jacquet chose a different route.
During his break, he returned to the pitch on an individually tailored training plan, working through his rehab with one eye fixed firmly on the AXA Training Centre. The result: Liverpool now have a £60m defender ready to slot straight into Iraola’s pre-season programme later this month.
“I feel really good, the first impressions are good and I am very happy to start here,” he told Liverpoolfc.com. “When I see the facilities, I can see myself there. I feel good here and I am very excited to get started. For me it’s a big dream, it’s a big club. A club like Liverpool, it’s a big dream for me.”
The words are simple, but the message is clear. This is not just a step up. It is the step.
Beating Europe to a “big dream”
Liverpool did not stroll to this signing. They fought for it.
A string of European clubs circled in the winter window, with Chelsea the most notable rival. The Premier League’s serial bidders saw the same thing Liverpool did: a 20-year-old centre-back with the frame, timing and temperament to anchor a defence for the next decade.
Liverpool won that race and did so with a compelling sporting pitch. Central to it is Van Dijk, now a two-time Premier League winner and still the reference point for elite defending at Anfield. Jacquet is understood to be particularly keen to work alongside him as the Dutchman approaches his 35th birthday later this month.
For a young defender, there are worse mentors than the man who redefined Liverpool’s back line.
The new guard: France and Italy’s finest?
Jacquet’s arrival continues a clear pattern. Eleven months ago, Liverpool spent just under £30m to bring in Giovanni Leoni from Parma, convinced they had secured one of Italy’s best young defenders. Now they believe they have paired him with the standout of his age group from France.
The plan is obvious: build the next great Liverpool defence before the current one fades.
Leoni’s story has been more cruel so far. The 19-year-old tore his ACL on his debut against Southampton in the Carabao Cup last September, a nightmare opening chapter to his Anfield career. His recovery, though, is moving in the right direction. He has been back in the gym at the AXA Training Centre for some time, and Iraola is expected to provide an update on his progress this month.
If both youngsters come through as Liverpool hope, the club will have locked down the heart of their defence for years at a combined outlay of under £90m. In today’s market, that is the kind of long-term bet elite clubs have to get right.
Konate out, Jacquet in
The timing of Jacquet’s unveiling is no coincidence. On the same day Liverpool completed his move, Real Madrid formally wrapped up their deal for Ibrahima Konate, who leaves Anfield as a free agent.
Liverpool had been in talks with Konate’s camp for close to two years, trying to thrash out new terms. No agreement came. The France international, still in his prime, will now line up for the European champions without a transfer fee changing hands.
Losing a defender of Konate’s calibre for nothing stings. It also sharpens the need for a new defensive cycle. Jacquet is not a like-for-like replacement – he arrives younger, less proven, and with the physical scars of recent surgery – but he does arrive with the responsibility of helping to close that gap.
So Liverpool turn the page. Van Dijk, Gomez, Jacquet and, in time, Leoni: a blend of experience and potential tasked with carrying Iraola’s high-energy, front-foot football.
The club has paid heavily to secure what it believes are the two best young defenders in France and Italy. Now comes the unforgiving part. Can Jacquet turn that “big dream” into dominance on the pitch, or will the weight of Anfield’s expectations test him in ways no rehabilitation ever could?
