Liverpool news: 'The worst transfer window we have seen in Premier League history' - Carragher slams the Reds after opening-day draw

It only took one Liverpool game of the new season for Jamie Carragher to raise the volume on his criticism of the Anfield club. After the 2-2 draw with Newcastle in the opening weekend of the 2026-27 Premier League, the former defender was breaking down the club's midfield problems on Sky Sports, Florian Wirtz's fit in the side, and new manager Andoni Iraola's struggles to find a structure capable of protecting the defence.

The discussion, however, quickly moved beyond tactics into a much bigger question: what exactly Liverpool got for the £445 million spent in the summer 2025 window. It was in that context that Carragher issued a warning that stands out less for its shock value and more for what it implies.

'My fear is this window of 12 months ago could set Liverpool back a year or two, to fix it,' he said. 'If this doesn't change in the next two or three months under Iraola, with these players improving, I think we are going to be looking at that as arguably the worst transfer window we have seen in Premier League history.'

That is a strong statement. After all, this was not a window built around players who lacked quality or clearly baffling signings.

Liverpool brought in Alexander Isak for £125 million, Florian Wirtz for £116.5 million, Hugo Ekitike for £79 million, Milos Kerkez for £40 million, Jeremie Frimpong for £29.5 million, Giorgi Mamardashvili for around £29 million, and Giovanni Leoni for £26 million.

The problem, then, is not necessarily the names chosen, but the return the group has delivered given the scale of that investment.

A Liverpool window that made sense on paper, but hasn't worked on the pitch

Individually, there are solid arguments to defend almost every signing. Wirtz was one of the standout talents in European football and was coming off outstanding seasons at Bayer Leverkusen.

Paying over £100 million for a player of that calibre was always going to carry risk, but there was a clear footballing logic behind trying to place him at the centre of a new Liverpool generation.

Ekitike did not look like an unrealistic gamble by market standards either. The forward arrived young, with plenty of room to grow in value, and characteristics that matched Liverpool's need to freshen up their attack.

More than that, he was in fact one of the few reinforcements from the 2025 summer to deliver consistently on the pitch. The gap between the Frenchman's investment and his output, then, is not the main problem with this window.

The discussion becomes more complicated when it comes to Isak. The Swede is an elite forward, and the fee can be defended based on his quality and the state of the market.

But there is a legitimate question about how the overall investment was distributed: having already spent £79 million on Ekitike, did it make sense to commit a further £125 million to another centre-forward?

This is not a criticism of Isak's ability, but of allocating such an enormous budget to a single position.

Kerkez and Frimpong follow a different logic. Both arrived off the back of excellent seasons, and were young, attack-minded, and matched the profile Liverpool had been building for their full-back positions.

Around £70 million for the pair did not, before results came in, look like an unreasonable bet. Mamardashvili also had a clear justification: a goalkeeper with the potential to be groomed as Alisson's successor. Leoni was an even more forward-looking bet.

That is why calling this window the "worst in history" requires a fair degree of exaggeration. What does exist, however, is a concrete problem: almost none of these players managed to produce, last season, what would be expected of signings made to immediately raise the level of the reigning English champions.

The risk that the 2025 investment comes due in 2026 and 2027

The most compelling part of Carragher's statement lies precisely in the idea that this window could "set Liverpool back" a year or two.

The club made its major financial move 12 months ago. The intention was clear: capitalise on the English title won under Arne Slot and build a squad capable of sustaining a new period of dominance. Rather than simply replacing individual pieces, Liverpool spent like a club looking to establish a new foundation for the years ahead.

Instead, the 2025-26 season went in the opposite direction. Liverpool slumped to fifth place in the Premier League, conceded 53 goals in the competition, and ended the cycle with Slot's departure.

The manager ended up shouldering much of the responsibility for the drop in performance, while the output of the newly signed players received, proportionally, far less scrutiny.

That is precisely where Iraola's arrival changes the weight of the assessment. The Spaniard had no involvement in building this squad. He inherited the players after a disappointing season and now has to find a way to make them function together.

If the team improves, the interpretation of the 2025 window improves with it. If it does not, it will become increasingly difficult to pin the problem solely on the previous manager.

The picture emerging from the 2026-27 window reinforces the concern. After spending £445 million the previous year, Liverpool did not return to the market with anywhere near the same intensity. The need now is far more about fine-tuning than another multi-million-pound rebuild.

Carragher himself acknowledges that the club needs to find solutions, particularly in midfield, but also recognises that a broader transition is under way at Anfield, with Iraola taking charge and club legends such as Alisson and Virgil van Dijk approaching the end of their time at the club.

That creates an important consequence. If Wirtz, Isak, Frimpong, Kerkez and the rest finally reach the level expected of them, Liverpool will simply have gone through a far more complicated adaptation season than anticipated.

But if a significant portion of that group continues to fall short of expectations, the club will have to return to the market to fix problems that should already have been solved by the previous investment.

And that is the real fear behind Carragher's comment. It is not simply that Liverpool spent a huge amount of money on poor players. It is that they spent a fortune on players who were supposed to represent the club's future and, a year on, still do not know exactly how best to use them.