Are Liverpool Ready for the New Season?

Last week, I wrote about my concerns when it comes to the minority investment that has been made into Liverpool by a group of billionaires. The more that I think about it, the more concerned I am and the more convinced I become that too many people are sleeping on what it could mean for the long-term future of the club. In case you’re unaware, Jeff Bezos has made himself one of the richest people in the world on the backs of his workers, repeatedly doing whatever it took in order to smash the idea of unions being created by those who do the actual labour for Amazon. As Liverpool supporter Oobah Butler discovered in his documentary, The Great Amazon Heist, the drivers are forced to wee into bottles because they’re not allowed to stop to relieve themselves as they look to hit their delivery targets. Bezos is the exact opposite of the sort of person who should have anything at all to do with the club.

I don’t talk much football on here, but feel I have to today. Bezos and his gang of vultures getting his hands on even a third of Liverpool Football Club turns my stomach.

I worry for the soul of the club I love and dread what they’ll turn us into. #LFC

— Scott G 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 (@thegrayson.bsky.social) 10 August 2026 at 16:19

Then there’s Eduardo Saverin, the man who helped Mark Zuckerberg to create Facebook in order to allow the two of them and their fellow nerds to rank the attractiveness of women at Harvard based entirely on their looks. If that doesn’t sound too bad, perhaps the fact that he reportedly renounced his US citizenship and moved to Singapore in order to avoid paying capital gains tax on before Facebook’s initial public offering might give you pause for thought. These men are not the sort of people who will simply shrug their shoulders and move on if they don’t get the return on investment from Liverpool that they’ll be hoping for. Instead, they are significantly more likely to be willing to asset strip the Reds to recoup their investment. Think that protests will make any difference? I refer you to my earlier comment about how Bezos has smashed the unions and ignored any protests by Amazon workers. We should all be on Red Alert about this move.

The Squad is Still Thin

When I wrote about the squad last week, I harboured a hope that it might have been improved somewhat in the days that followed. Instead, we continue to look around at players moving to and from our rivals without the Reds doing a lot in the market. The rumours around the likely arrival of Bradley Barcola continue to swirl, but there has yet to be an actual offer that Paris Saint-Germain have accepted for the winger. The same is also true of fellow PSG player Ibrahim Mbaye. In truth, even the arrival of both of them will still leave us looking short ahead of our trip to Newcastle United on the opening day of the season, given the fact that they will have had no time to work with the new manager of their teammates. Can we really see a world in which either of them would be chosen to play from the start at St James’s Park? The imminent departure of Curtis Jones also means that we look anaemic at best in our midfield department, which isn’t ideal.

You cannot go into a league and CL campaign with this double pivot. Liverpool need a top midfield arrival.

— stevemcveigh.bsky.social (@stevemcveigh.bsky.social) 16 August 2026 at 18:44

Many of don’t know a huge amount about Andoni Iraola, other than the fact that he got Bournemouth punching above their weight. One of the things that most of us do know, though, is that the Spaniard asks a lot of his players physically. The squad would be described as threadbare at best, even if both Jérémy Jacquet and Ronald Araújo impressed in the friendly at Anfield over the weekend. We look slightly better defensively, thanks in no small part to the improvement of Jeremie Frimpong at right-back, but Iraola will be wanting a much bigger squad to turn to if he’s actually going to compete this season. The truth of the matter is that, right now at least, we don’t look likely to be one of the teams hoping to take the Premier League title off Arsenal. There are definitely some green shoots of promise and the fact that a firing Alexander Isak alongside Florian Wirtz will allow us to paper over plenty of cracks also can’t be ignored.

We’re Not Alone in Not Looking Ready

The fact that the World Cup went on as long as it did in the summer has meant that most of the big teams have had to wait some time for their best players to return. Giving them a holiday after the tournament is obviously the right thing to do, but it does mean that Iraola hasn’t had as long to work with the full squad as would be ideal, considering he’s new at Anfield himself. Perhaps only Arsenal actually look ready for the season to start, at least in terms of the teams that are going to be hopeful of competing at the top of the table. If the Reds are to compete in any meaningful sense, we’re going to be be dependent on all of the other big teams also having to find their way into the season. There are only a couple of games being played before the first of the interminable international breaks comes along, so we will have to aim to remain in touch at the top. Both Newcastle and Nottingham Forest look beatable on paper, but neither game will be easy.

This Peacock Premier League ad that’s like, “Keep the party going!” 🤣

Meanwhile, longtime fans getting ready for another season:

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— Tara 🐢 (@4jinxremoving.bsky.social) 19 July 2026 at 01:27

What most of us will be hoping for this campaign is for the Reds to look more like themselves after the difficulties of last season. I’ve said repeatedly that Arne Slot and his players will all remain entirely blameless in my eyes after the tragic loss of Diogo Jota, but it is also worth bearing in mind that everything else that could go wrong did go wrong. Replacing Slot was the right thing to do and hopefully it has allowed a new wind to blow through the AXA Training Centre as well as Anfield, but it will still take time for the Spaniard to get his points across. That being said, the same is true of Xabi Alonso at Chelsea, Enzo Maresca at Manchester City and Roberto De Zerbi at Tottenham Hotspur. Yes, Michael Carrick is settled at Manchester United, but he also has to cope with the addition of Champions League football this time out. The title is Mikel Arteta’s to lose, but the chasing pack will be hoping they can keep in touch until we get to the business end.