Why did Liverpool miss out on their top targets this summer?

Liverpool’s transfer plans did not pan out how they would have expected this summer, leaving many questioning whether the iconic Anfield, and Reds boss Jurgen Klopp, have lost the ability to lure top talent to Merseyside. There was a time when players would bite your hand off to play in front of the adoring Kop, but this transfer window is perhaps a sign that Liverpool’s powers are diminishing.

Indeed, they completed the signings of World Cup winner Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai nice and early in the summer. But it was their pursuit of a deep-lying midfielder that left Klopp and the Liverpool hierarchy licking their wounds. Not once, but twice, the Reds lost the race for a new number six and Klopp was left ruing the financial power of rivals Chelsea.

The battle with the Blues started off the pitch just before the start of the new Premier League season, with Chelsea entering the race for long-time Liverpool target Romeo Lavia. The Reds had been going back and forth with Southampton over the price of the exciting 19-year-old and looked to be the favourites to land his signature in the Premier League betting when Chelsea came in with a bid bigger than anything Liverpool had previously laid on the table.

So, what did Fenway Sports Group do in return? Sent a mammoth offer of £110 million to Brighton and Hove Albion owner Tony Bloom for Moises Caicedo, who Chelsea had been chasing for most of the summer in a similar fashion to Liverpool’s pursuit of Lavia. Now, whether or not Liverpool did that because they actually wanted the Ecuadorian or to take the Blues off the scent of Lavia is still up for debate.

If it was the latter, then they must have thought it had worked because Chelsea retaliated with a £115m bid for Caicedo and it appeared to be a no-brainer for the 21-year-old as he made it clear he had no interest in a move to Anfield over Stamford Bridge and put pen-to-paper on a lucrative eight-year deal with the London club.

However, if Liverpool thought that they now had a clear run on Lavia, they were wrong. FSG clearly underestimated the financial powers of co-Chelsea owners Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital and they shot themselves in the foot with the Caicedo offer, as it made Lavia feel like he was now second choice to the Reds.

For the second time in just a matter of days, Lavia became the second player to opt for a move to west London over Merseyside as the Blues completed the signing of the 19-year-old for £58m. It’s two big wins for Chelsea, as they needed new recruits in midfield just as badly as Liverpool given that N’Golo Kante, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Matteo Kovacic, Mason Mount and Jorginho have all left since the start of the year.

But while Chelsea fans will be winding up their Liverpool-supporting acquaintances for some time over how this summer window has panned out, these moves were not simply down to one side being more desirable than the other. Of course, being in London is a factor, but there is much more to it.

Chelsea have been in pursuit of Caicedo since the start of the year, originally bidding for him back in January but opting to sign Enzo Fernandez at a time when they were more fancied in the relegation odds Premier League than the winner market. They didn’t stop working behind the scenes to get the Ecuadorian in through the door this summer, however, and by the time Liverpool decided to stick their oar in, the player’s mind was clearly already made up.

The Reds had their backs against the wall in the Lavia deal too. While they were interested all summer, Chelsea first bid for the Southampton man on Deadline Day last year, with his fellow countryman Eden Hazard and Caicedo both believed to have played big parts in Lavia’s decision to pick the Blues over Liverpool.

It’s hard to say that Anfield is losing its gloss because that should never be the case. Liverpool’s shortcomings this summer have been down to a poor transfer strategy and the inability to compete with Chelsea in terms of finances. We will need to wait and see who the real winner is here though, as Boehly is yet to reap the reward for his £1bn spent since buying the club from Roman Abramovich.