Always wanting more. Always wanting cover. Always wanting that shiny new thing.
Liverpool to win the first 4 Premier League games is 4/1*
We’re probably right to expect the club to be at the forefront of the transfer market, to be as active as they possibly can to ensure the squad is filled with the highest quality player to help in our search for that league title that has been deprived from us for so long.
Have we ever been happy come the end of a transfer window? We are never quite 100%. Still missing one more body, maybe two. Do not say ‘final piece’ and ‘jigsaw’, maybe whisper it quietly.
If part of a season does not end in success the answer will always be ‘well, we could have bought there’ or ‘now we need to go and improve there’.
That has been a default response amongst our fans for time, and probably not just not our fans in all honesty.
Let’s look at this window.
This transfer window, on the whole, has been one of the most bizarre. There has been a general inactivity across the Premier League and we have entered the final five days of the window with a lot of clubs still needing to supplement their squad and fill gaps.
Tottenham for example, have done nothing. Not even an ‘out’ of note.
There are many caveats that can be used to explain the lack of transfer action, one being the shortening of the window in England, the World Cup is another.
If we look at Liverpool’s business in this window, there is justification for why every single fan should be over the moon.
Problem areas addressed, a world record fee spent on a keeper, back-up for our marauding front three purchased. Managing to keep hold of all our star players and tying down some of them to long-term contracts represents a fantastic transfer window for Liverpool Football Club.
And yet still, you can’t scroll through social media or an article relating to Liverpool online without the words ‘Fekir’ or ‘Pulisic’ popping up somewhere in the vicinity.
Pulisic to join Liverpool before the window closes is 6/1*
Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp wanted one more player, there can be no denying that. The LFC.TV interview was done, the PR shots were constructed, Nabil Fekir was practically a Liverpool player. Fekir to join Liverpool before the window closes is 7/5.*
But he’s not. And despite our brilliant, and it really is brilliant, business in this window, there is still a slight nagging feeling that Liverpool should have done a bit more.
One more body. One more attacking player. A replacement for Coutinho. Cover for the front three. Fekir could have ticked a lot of these boxes, but the club seemingly made the sensible decision to not go any further with a deal.
And yet fans are left wanting ‘one more’. Will Liverpool live to regret not signing ‘one more’?
Jurgen Klopp has not been as active as previous managers during his time in the Anfield hotseat, opting to stick with developing what he already has ahead of spending money on a player that he didn’t believe that he necessarily needed.
It is a policy that has worked for him during his time at the club.
Cast your mind back to the transfer window ahead of the 2016/17 season. The shouts and calls were for Liverpool to buy a first-choice left back. The logical conclusion was for Klopp to sign a first-team left back. Patience had run out with Alberto Moreno post-Sevilla and surely that was that.
Klopp spent his budget elsewhere and opted to re-train James Milner as a left back. Liverpool qualified for the Champions League. It worked.
The last two seasons the go-to shout was ‘Liverpool need a proper no.6’. Klopp saw something in Jordan Henderson in that position and Liverpool made it to a Champions League final and Henderson played in a World Cup semi-final for his country in that position.
Signings have eventually been made for those two positions, again backing up Klopp’s policy of waiting for the right player to become available but the interim period backs up Klopp’s faith in what he already has.
Squad depth has massively improved through Liverpool’s work in this transfer window.
You take the expected line-up of: Alisson, Trent, Van Dijk, Lovren, Robertson, Henderson, Fabinho, Keita, Mane, Firmino, Salah.
Well that still leaves us with a bench of possibly Nathaniel Clyne, Joe Gomez, Gini Wijnaldum, James Milner, Adam Lallana, Xherdan Shaqiri, Daniel Sturridge. You can even throw Moreno, Klavan and Matip out there too.
That’s depth.
This squad is strong. The feeling around the club right now is one of optimism. This season has the feeling that something special might be awaiting.
Maybe we don’t need that ‘one more’.
*Odds are subject to change.