The loyalty chat is doing my head in a bit, if I’m honest. You’ll hear it around Liverpool whenever a top player is linked away, or a big decision goes against us: “Where’s the loyalty?” But then you look at the way some of our own talk about Arne Slot and it’s hard not to notice the contradiction.

Because if loyalty is the principle, it can’t only apply to the lad in the shirt. It has to apply to the fella in the dugout as well. You can’t demand patience for players and then have the manager on a week-to-week rolling audition.

We don’t miss loyalty, we miss quality

This is the bit people don’t like admitting. When a brilliant player goes, the pain isn’t really “he wasn’t loyal”. The pain is that he was good. Proper good. The sort you can’t replace by just saying the right things about togetherness.

And that’s normal. Football is built on watching top players do top things for your club, then fearing the day it ends. But let’s not dress it up as some moral failing on the player’s part if, deep down, what we’re gutted about is losing elite quality.

“Step up” only works one way, apparently

We love the “step up” line when it suits us. We want players to see Liverpool as a move up the ladder, a bigger stage, a better chance of winning, a better platform for their career. And we’re not wrong to think that way either. Liverpool is massive. Anfield is special. The league is relentless. If you’re ambitious, it makes sense.

But you can’t then act shocked when a player decides Barcelona or Real Madrid is their step up. Not because Liverpool isn’t enormous, but because footballers are human and careers are short. Different cities, different cultures, different weather, different lifestyles. And, yes, often big wages too.

If you want loyalty, give it first

The uncomfortable truth is we tend to ask for loyalty as a one-way street. We want players to stay through rough spells, but we don’t always offer the same grace to managers or even to players when their form dips.

So maybe it’s not “loyalty or quality” as a clean choice, but it’s close. If we’re going to judge people purely on output, then fine, say that with your chest. But if we’re going to bang on about loyalty, then it has to be consistent: to the manager, to the squad, and to the reality that sometimes, someone will look at Spain and think, why wouldn’t I?

Written by Paul H: 26 December 2025

Tags: efl transfers