Liverpool have missed out on big-name targets before, and it’s never been the end of the world. Annoying? Of course. But it’s also part of how football works when the richest clubs can hoover up whoever they fancy and everyone else has to pick their moments.
So if we do lose out on Semenyo, even though I can see why people like him as an option, I’m not falling apart over it. Not if the club use the window properly and address the areas that have been crying out for attention. We all know where they are, and we’ve known for a while.
Stop making Slot the villain of the week
What I can’t be doing with is the blame game starting up again, with Arne Slot somehow becoming public enemy number one because a deal might not happen. How do any of us know he’s the one who vetoed it? We don’t. And yet the pile-on starts like it’s an open-and-shut case.
It’s funny how quickly that flips, too. When something goes well, the manager is a genius. When something doesn’t, he’s suddenly stubborn, naïve, out of his depth, take your pick. The truth is, we’re rarely privy to who wants what, who’s pushing which profile, and what compromises the club are or aren’t willing to make.
If City get him, you move on
If Semenyo ends up at City, then fair enough, you shrug and you get on with it. That’s not me saying he isn’t a good player, it’s just acknowledging the reality: you can’t build your whole window around one target and then melt down if he chooses the most dominant side in the league.
More importantly, Liverpool shouldn’t be shopping like a team that’s one wide forward away from perfection. The priority has to be the spine. When your defensive structure creaks under pressure and your midfield control comes and goes, you feel it in every phase: in transitions, in second balls, in how often you’re forced into last-ditch defending.
The spine still matters most
Defensive and middle-of-the-park reinforcements felt imperative in the summer window, and they still do now. That isn’t glamorous, and it doesn’t win the social media arguments, but it wins you games across the winter when the schedule is relentless and legs start to go.
So rather than picking a target and turning it into a referendum on the manager, I’d rather wait and see what the club actually do in January. Judge the window on whether Liverpool come out of it stronger where it counts, not on whether one particular name ends up elsewhere.
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