Andoni Iraola's Liverpool Transfer Window Review
Andoni Iraola emerges from a bruising first Liverpool transfer window with his authority intact and a clearer idea of what this new era will look like.
The 43-year-old walked into a summer that felt like a test of nerve as much as strategy. Tension over big targets. Anticipation over long-chased deals. Disappointment when key pieces slipped away. It was the full Premier League experience, Liverpool-style.
Yet when the window finally slammed shut, Iraola did not walk away empty-handed.
He landed three senior signings in Victor Munoz, Ronald Araujo and Bradley Barcola, bolstering the spine and adding a high-upside wide option. The club also welcomed Jeremy Jacquet at last, the defender finally arriving after being signed under Arne Slot and effectively bridging two managerial regimes.
The glaring issue remains obvious. Mohamed Salah is gone and Liverpool did not get the right-winger they wanted to replace him. That failure coloured much of the outside noise around the window. Inside the club, though, there is a sense the story is not finished.
Minteh chase not over
Yankuba Minteh was meant to be the answer.
Liverpool pushed hard for the Brighton winger late in the window, only to run into a wall. Brighton stood firm, rejecting bids of £50 million and £60m, and keeping the 22-year-old at the Amex Stadium. For now.
The door, though, has been nudged back open.
Brighton head coach Fabian Hurzeler has hinted that Minteh’s long-term future may lie elsewhere, raising the prospect of renewed talks in January. The 33-year-old made no secret of the reality facing a club that develops and sells elite talent.
“If the whole team is successful and the individual shines then Yankuba will get a lot of attention again and he can then maybe fulfil his dream in the next transfer window,” Hurzeler said.
For Iraola, that line will not have gone unnoticed. Liverpool wanted Minteh badly this summer. The player remains on the south coast, but the battle for his signature looks more delayed than defeated.
N’Guessan deal quietly wrapped up
While the drama around Barcola and Deadline Day dominated headlines, Liverpool were working on another move in the background.
Days after the window closed on September 1, the club announced an agreement to sign Djylian N’Guessan from Saint-Etienne. The deal, confirmed on Friday, will see the 18-year-old forward join permanently in January for around £4.3 million.
Liverpool have already mapped out his next step. N’Guessan will spend the 2026/27 campaign on loan at Ligue 1 side Stade Brestois, a move designed to harden him in a top-flight environment before he has to fight for minutes at Anfield.
The teenager arrives with a small but intriguing résumé. He has made 13 senior appearances for Saint-Etienne, scoring once, and featured seven times for France at the U20 World Cup last year as they reached the semi-final stage and finished fourth.
It is not the sort of signing that shifts title odds overnight. It is, though, the kind of calculated, long-term play Liverpool have built a modern era on.
So Iraola leaves his first window without the marquee right-winger he craved, but with fresh talent in key areas, a major January target still within reach, and another promising forward already locked in for the future. The question now is simple: can this patchwork of new faces and delayed arrivals keep Liverpool at the sharp end of English football while the next big move waits in the winter?
