Why Liverpool won the transfer window
“Winners of the 2025 January transfer window…you’ll never sing that.” Supporters of Premier League clubs busily debate who has done the best business strengthening their squads. Manchester City could be declared “winners of the window” simply because they spent most, £180m of the total league £370m outlay. They brought in such talents as Omar Marmoush and Nico Gonzalez and urgently needed to, given recent travails.
Aston Villa fans argue they won the window by receiving £64m for Jhon Duran, who wasn’t starting, and bringing in Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio on loan. Chelsea enjoyed a good window simply by trimming their squad. Ipswich are definitely stronger with the arrival of Ben Godfrey, Julio Enciso and Jaden Philogene. Ditto Spurs with Antonin Kinsky, Kevin Danso and Mathys Tel. Wolves bolstered their defence with Emmanuel Agbadou and Nasser Djiga with Marshall Munetsi shielding in front of them.
But the real winners were Liverpool. They had a dry January. They signed nobody, because they didn’t need to. Nor did their main title rivals, Arsenal, who urgently needed to. Liverpool won because they plan in advance, although letting Virgil van Dijk, Mo Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold run down their contracts appears negligent.
But just look at their bench at the Vitality: Diogo Jota, Darwin Nunez, Curtis Jones, Wataru Endo, Conor Bradley, Kostas Tsimikas and Caoimhin Kelleher have 230 international appearances between them. Of the other two subs, Jarell Quansah was named in England’s provisional squad for Euro 2024 while Harvey Elliott is destined for senior honours if he can stay fit. Federico Chiesa and Joe Gomez, who share 66 caps between them, didn’t even travel to Bournemouth because of the strength of the match-day squad. And they were fit.