The 2025/26 domestic Premier League campaign has not gone to plan for Liverpool manager Arne Slot or the Anfield faithful themselves, as our title defence campaign following 2024/25's success quickly turned into a damp squib and our huge spending during the summer transfer window has largely caused more problems than were desired.
With one game remaining now before we hit the summer off season and real football news comes to an end, we find ourselves three points behind fourth placed Aston Villa and whilst it is incredibly unlikely given the goal difference swing that would be required in 90 minutes, Bournemouth could still technically and mathematically take fifth place from us should we lose to Brentford in the curtain closer.
However, it is probably safe to start looking ahead to next season where there is a good expectation that there will be significant improvement as our summer signings will already have 12 months under their belt, so settling in and adjusting can no longer be used as an excuse for poor and inconsistent performance levels. We can also expect a few new signings given the players that will be departing, and those who continue to have serious question marks hanging over their heads.
With Egyptian wizard Mohamed Salah now confirmed as moving on to pastures new, the speculation rumour mill has long featured RB Leipzig's Yan Diomande as potentially being an option of interest to us depending on whether or not it would look likely that we could get a deal over the line.
With growing doubts that any such move would be likely to come to fruition, it has now been reported this week that we have slightly pivoted our interest and are now taking a closer look at teammate and attacking colleague Antonio Nusa. It is believed that Liverpool are hoping to add new wingers to both flanks ahead of the coming 2026/27, so if our interest in Diomande has now stalled we can expect plenty of additional speculation surrounding the next option on our shortlist.
Of course, the speculation rumour mill is endless and if we are genuinely on the hunt for two new attackers wingers we can continue to expect both Diomande and Nusa's names to keep cycling through for the next few months, and there will be plenty of other names thrown into the mix whether or not we actually have any real interest in them. They are already not the only attackers linked with us as the season has edged towards an end and very little of this speculation will be even close to the truth, or grounded in concrete fact, so that always has to be factored in.
Again though Diomande and Nusa, given the headlines that they have created this year, are in the ballpark of potential talent calibre that we should be interested in. We are also undoubtedly tracking them both at one level or another given how the modern scouting game works and keeps itself updated even if that data is never subsequently acted on.
As ever, we will simply have to see what happens as pre season approaches as after the last nine months, we will be determined to have any targets through the door early so we can avoid the lack of understanding and settling in problems we suffered this term.