As much as I hate Piers Morgan and am desperately disappointed that Arsenal’s title win means that he got to enjoy even a modicum of happiness, he used to have something in his Twitter bio that said something like, ‘one day you’re the cock of the yard, the next you’re a feather in a cap’. It was a saying about how things can change quite rapidly in life and that you need to be prepared to roll with the punches. It is something that I think we could all do with learning, not only when it comes to football but where everyday life is also concerned. Perhaps if a few Liverpool supporters had been a bit more conscious of the idea that things can change quickly, there would have been less of a sense of entitlement last season and one based more on being understanding. I’m not going to go over the same old ground again that I’ve done previously, pointing out how disgraceful some supporters were in booing Arne Slot, but I will make clear that I don’t think that the Reds are entitled to anything and that every piece of silverware and success has to be fought for.
Yan Diomandé is set to be the biggest attraction of this summer’s transfer market. According to @David_Ornstein, the Ivorian has reportedly already chosen @PSG_inside, convinced by the Al-Khelaifi-Campos-Enrique project.
But what does our data say? 👇 #PSG #LFC
— football-insights.bsky.social (@football-insights.bsky.social) 29 June 2026 at 13:22
In football, things can change far more rapidly than anyone realises and the reasons for those changes can be numerous. There was a very obvious, tragic one that impacted Liverpool last summer and that nowhere near enough people bore in mind when discussing the club’s travails in the months that followed. I am largely convinced that it led to the sacking of the Head Coach, because of the underperformance of both him and the players that had lost a friend and colleague. This summer, time has passed and hopefully a lot of the players have been able to grieve appropriately and move forward, whilst never forgetting about Diogo Jota or André Silva. We know that last season wasn’t good enough, even if the reason for that was entirely understandable. It has left the Reds several rungs below where they were when Jürgen Klopp made them the best team in the world, so now the rebuild has to start. It appears as though we’ve missed out on our top target in Yan Diomande so what, if anything, does that say about where the club finds itself?
Have the Reds Fallen Down the Pecking Order?
When Liverpool won the Premier League the season after winning the Champions League, having reached the final for the second successive season, it felt as though the Reds were on top of the world. Although the 2021-2022 season ultimately ended in disappointment, the fact that we came closer to winning a quadruple than any other team has ever managed tells its own story. The departure of Jürgen Klopp was always likely to mean that we fell off a little bit initially, but the fact that Arne Slot won the title at the first time of asking meant that such a problem wasn’t immediately apparent. The fall off last season wasn’t entirely down to the Dutchman, no matter what some people might like to suggest, but the fact that we moved to replace him is suggestive of a club with people in positions of power more than happy to lay the entire blame at Slot’s door. Whether or not Andoni Iraola will prove to be the correct replacement for him will only come clear in the fullness of time, but the Reds still have plenty of work to do in the transfer market to support him.
Having slept on it, the Diomande rejection still stings. Maybe it’ll be a blessing in disguise long-term, as the price was enormous. But the alternatives touted are all by and large left wingers by trade (Barcola, El Mala, Fernandez-Pardo) – so I genuinely don’t know where we go from here #LFC
— Lewis Jones (@lewisjones.bsky.social) 29 June 2026 at 08:49
The fact that Yan Diomande has reportedly chosen to go to Paris Saint-Germain, in spite of the fact that he has said recently that his dad is a Liverpool supporter and that the player himself also has a soft spot for us, isn’t good news. It is suggestive of the Reds having fallen down the pecking order somewhat, albeit bearing in mind that PSG are back-to-back Champions League winners and Luis Enrique is arguably one of the best managers working in the game at present. Liverpool should still prove to be a draw, however. Not only were we the only club to go toe-to-toe with Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City during their period of dominance, even bettering them at times, the right-wing berth is ready for a player to come in and make their own. If they do so, they could become as much of a global superstar as Mohamed Salah has done in a way that they simply won’t be able to do in Paris. It is, I’m afraid to say, at least slightly concerning that we have missed out on a player that was meant to be our top target for the summer, so what happens next?
Other Targets Are Available
The good news for Liverpool is that there are other targets available, even if they don’t feel like quite such a perfect fit as a Salah replacement as Diomande did. The obvious name that has been cropping up repeatedly is Bradley Barcola, who will almost certainly be surplus to requirements in Paris once the Diomande signature is confirmed. Quite how ‘disastrous’ the decision of the RB Leipzig winger is in terms of what it says about the Reds’ current standing in the game is concerned is something that remains to be seen. There is little doubt, though, that Liverpool need to get a big name over the line before our reputation takes too big a battering. Having endured what we did in a purely footballing sense last season, it isn’t outrageous to say that players, agents and everyone else associated with the sport will be waiting to see whether or not the gamble on Iraola can pay off. It means that there’s something of a chicken and egg situation in hand, with players wanting to know how good we are and us needing players to prove we’re good.
I didn’t think Diomande was ever going to happen.
1. Too inexperienced.
2. Too expensive.
3. Too many “dream” clubs.I don’t think Barcola will either.
Pretty certain majority of our summer business will be on Prem proven players.
Rayan, Bowen, Wharton, Scott, Kayode, Trafford.
Let’s see.
— CosyGapko (@cosygapko.bsky.social) 29 June 2026 at 08:11
That being said, Iraola will have faith in his own abilities and his footballing ideas. He will believe that he has what it takes to get us back to competing at the top of the league, as long as he’s given the tools to work with. It isn’t necessarily the fact that he needs to be working with high-price players for that to be the case, however. He proved at Bournemouth that he can work with young players and get the best out of them, so may well be delighted at the prospect of promoting some Academy lads into the first team system to see what he can get from them. There is also the fact that Jürgen Klopp achieved what he did with largely unfancied players. If you don’t believe me on that front then you need only search social media for reactions to the signings of players like Andy Robertson, Sadio Mané and Roberto Firmino: all lads who have since departed Anfield as club legends. Maybe the Spaniard needs to be given a few pig’s ears that he can turn into silk purses before the biggest names in the game start to move to Merseyside once more.
