Liverpool's Costly Rebuild Faces Criticism Amid Quansah Saga
Liverpool thought they were building a dynasty. Instead, they may have created a cautionary tale.
After finally lifting the Premier League title in 2025, the club tore into the squad with a zeal rarely seen from reigning champions. Key faces moved on, new ones arrived, and the numbers were eye-watering: more than £400m spent on incomings, softened only slightly by around £200m raised in sales.
On paper, it looked bold. Ambitious. Ruthless.
In hindsight, it looks like one of the worst periods of transfer business Liverpool have put together in the modern era.
And the Jarell Quansah situation threatens to become the emblem of it all.
Quansah at the centre of a looming storm
Sky Sports report that Arsenal are lining up a move for Quansah before the end of the window, with Bayer Leverkusen braced for a major bid. Leverkusen do not want to sell. That much is clear. But money talks, and this offer will not be small.
The figures circling around the deal are stark. Liverpool have a first-refusal clause, as confirmed by the BBC, and hold an option to bring Quansah back next summer for around £60m. Any bid accepted now is expected to clear £52m and could easily push beyond that number.
So the equation for Leverkusen is simple. If Quansah continues his rapid rise, Liverpool can take him back for £60m in a year’s time. Arsenal, desperate to strengthen and willing to go big, might pay more than that right now.
Turn down Arsenal and you probably lose him to Liverpool for £60m next summer. Take the money now and you bank a premium fee, avoid the clause, and hand one of Europe’s most promising young defenders to a Premier League rival.
For Liverpool, the optics are brutal. They sold a homegrown England international centre-back for around £25m. Within a year or so, they could watch him walk into Arsenal for more than double that, with the option of paying £60m themselves just to correct the original mistake.
Letting a player of that profile slip to a direct rival for a net gain of roughly £35m on the buyer’s side would be a damning verdict on the club’s planning. It would crystallise what many around Anfield already feel: the 2025 overhaul was not just aggressive, it was reckless.
A pattern of regret
Quansah’s case is not isolated. It fits into a broader pattern that has left supporters and observers alike questioning the judgment behind Liverpool’s sales.
Caoimhin Kelleher, long touted as one of the most capable No.2 goalkeepers in the Premier League and clearly ready to start regularly, left for Brentford. The deal? An initial £12.5m, with add-ons taking it to a modest £18m at best.
For a Premier League-ready goalkeeper in his prime years, that fee looks light. If Kelleher cements himself as a top-flight standout, that price will age badly.
Tyler Morton’s exit has raised similar eyebrows. Off he went to Lyon for what can only be described as a bargain fee. In France, he has quickly established himself as one of the stronger midfielders in Ligue 1, his stock rising far faster than Liverpool’s bank balance from the deal.
Then there is Harvey Elliott. Not a sale, but a loan that has done almost as much damage. The move, intended to accelerate his development, has instead stalled it. His value has dipped, his momentum checked. A year that should have pushed him to the next level has, instead, dragged him back.
Even the Luis Diaz decision looks increasingly flawed. One of the world’s most dynamic wingers, Diaz departed for a figure that now feels short of his true worth. To replace him like-for-like, Liverpool will likely be forced to pay close to double what they received, such is the inflation at the top end of the market and the scarcity of wide players at his level.
A window that rewrote Liverpool’s trajectory
Put together, the picture is stark. Liverpool did not just misjudge one or two deals. They strung together a sequence of sales that stripped away quality, sacrificed homegrown talent, and left the squad weaker in key areas.
The outlay on new faces has yet to fully convince. The money recouped on departures looks, in several cases, far too low. The net effect? A squad that has gone backwards, while players who might have formed the spine of the next great Liverpool side are thriving elsewhere.
If the Quansah move to Arsenal happens, and if the fee soars past £52m with Liverpool watching a homegrown England international head to a fierce rival, the 2025 rebuild will not just be remembered as a gamble.
It will be remembered as the summer Liverpool got their sales spectacularly wrong — and handed their rivals the rewards.
