Jurgen Klopp’s decision to leave Liverpool at the end of the 2023/24 season hung heavy over Anfield as the Arne Slot era looked to get up and running, and many thought the former Feyenoord coach would fall quickly by the wayside.

But Liverpool won the Premier League, and Slot is now renowned not just for his shrewd triumphs in his Dutch homeland but his success on a grander scale with Liverpool, who have fortified last year’s exploits with an utterly merciless spending spree across the summer transfer window, now the overwhelming favourites to retain their crown.

Liverpool did have to haul some surplus this summer, selling a whole host of first-team players in a major reshuffle. Up-and-coming stars such as Harvey Elliott and Jarell Quansah were sold despite making headway as top English talents over the past few years.

Quansah fell toward the fringes under Slot’s wing last season, and was sold to Bayer Leverkusen for £35m after being told he would continue to play a peripheral role throughout 2025/26.

Liverpool signed 18-year-old Giovanni Leoni to replace him, but Crystal Palace’s Marc Guehi was the one who was viewed right up until the final moments of the transfer window as the perfect player to slot in alongside Virgil van Dijk.

Liverpool missed out on Guehi

When Guehi scored a peach against Aston Villa before the September international break, his celebration carried with it the sense that he had written an incredible, fairytale ending to his chapter at Crystal Palace.

A move to Liverpool wasn’t just on the cards, but imminent, only it fell through at the eleventh hour on deadline day after the Eagles failed to secure an adequate replacement for Oliver Glasner’s captain, who has been instrumental across 2025 for the multi-trophy-winning side.

Guehi, 25, has emerged over the past few years as one of the best defenders in the Premier League, with his combative and composed defensive style merging with a technical game that stretches beyond what is expected of a centre-half.

Indeed, he has been described as an “absolute gem” by his former coach Michael Beale, who singled out his formative years at Chelsea’s Cobham as building his technical level.

Glasner, for his part, is adamant that certain stories of his desperate – and successful – efforts to keep Guehi at the club were false.

In any case, Guehi remains a Palace player and has no intention of penning a new deal that would extend his contract beyond its expiry at the end of the season.

A move to Merseyside remains a convincing possibility, with Liverpool snapping him up for free.

In this way, Guehi could mimic another deal from the closed summer transfer window, becoming Liverpool’s version of a player who actually left Anfield for a European giant just a few months ago.

Liverpool's own version of Guehi

While the Anfield side were willing to part with such players, it was a different tale with homegrown hero Trent Alexander-Arnold, who was billed by many as Liverpool’s new version of Steven Gerrard after emerging from the academy.

But the 26-year-old instead left at the end of his contract and signed for Real Madrid.

It was a contentious decision, but one which the 26-year-old made after much consideration, leaving England and the Premier League and joining Los Blancos, Liverpool’s biggest European rivals of modern times, for a fresh challenge and a chance to take his career to the next level.

Many Reds couldn’t understand the decision, with jeers when the right-back entered the fray after confirmation of his decision was made known in May, during a draw with Arsenal, pushing the unsavoury situation toward boiling point.

Premier League

257

18 (67)

Champions League

60

2 (13)

FA Cup

13

1 (3)

Carabao Cup

10

0 (6)

Europa League

5

0 (2)

Club World Cup

2

0 (1)

CL Qualifying

2

0 (1)

Community Shield

2

1 (0)

UEFA Super Cup

1

0 (0)

Even so, Alexander-Arnold celebrated Liverpool’s Premier League title with his peers and showed an outpouring of emotion after playing his final match in a Liverpool shirt at the end of the season. The Three Lions star was synonymous with his former outfit’s resurgence of the past decade, after all.

Hailed as a “generational” talent by content creator Asim Mahmood, Liverpool must regret losing such an incredible, irreplaceable playmaker, one of the greatest passers of the ball in English history.

There are parallels between his situation and Guehi’s at Palace, to be sure, and those similarities might become more pronounced in the coming months, when talk of a pre-contract agreement with the Eagles captain gathers steam.

Whether Liverpool win that battle remains to be seen, with sources recently suggesting Chelsea are gearing up to make a move of their own for Guehi after the new year.

But if Guehi does have his heart set on a move to Liverpool, as has been suggested, Slot might just find himself welcoming his own version of Alexander-Arnold, landing an elite player on a Bosman and one who is cherished by the fanbase of a club who cannot bear the thought of his departure.

Of course, Trent will return to his old stomping ground sooner than he might have hoped for, with Real Madrid drawn against Liverpool in the league phase of the Champions League.

Liverpool chiefs will be frustrated that they couldn’t convince the Scouser to stay put, but Slot’s side have already shown they can overcome the setback, just as there is confidence that the failed attempt to sign Guehi from Crystal Palace will not stop the club from achieving their goals.