Cody Gakpo is proving Liverpool right for turning down £85million

There were plenty of Liverpool supporters bracing for a Cody Gakpo exit this summer. After a torrid domestic campaign in 2025/26, capped by growing frustration among sections of the fanbase, and with Manchester City circling with real intent, the sense around Anfield was that the Dutchman’s time was up. Three matches into the new Premier League season, we are happy to admit we were wrong to worry, because Gakpo has looked like a man reborn under Andoni Iraola.

It is worth remembering just how close this went. City had been tracking Gakpo for much of the summer and eventually tabled an offer worth £85million once the dust settled on Liverpool’s opening day draw with Nottingham Forest. Tottenham Hotspur were also credited with interest, and for a spell it genuinely looked as though Gakpo would be one of the more significant departures of the window.

A move that collapsed at exactly the right moment

According to the Liverpool Echo, senior figures at Anfield refused to let the situation drift, holding firm on their valuation and their belief in the player rather than cashing in on a forward who had briefly looked surplus to requirements. It would have been the easy option to wave Gakpo off given the noise around his form, but Liverpool judged correctly that there was more to come.

Three games into the new campaign, that judgement already looks close to inspired. Gakpo has a goal and three assists in the Premier League, and every single one of those assists has gone to Alexander Isak. That is not a coincidence of fixtures or good fortune. That is the early signs of a genuine partnership forming in real time, and it is exactly the kind of understanding Liverpool need to build quickly after a summer of major turnover up front.

Building something real with Isak

Isak’s £125million arrival was always going to reshape how Liverpool attack, but it is Gakpo who has adapted fastest to feed him. The turn and cross that set up the striker against Forest showed real awareness of a teammate’s run into space, timed to perfection rather than hopeful. Against Ipswich Town, the outside of the boot pass that sent Isak clean through was the sort of moment that turns a promising understanding into a repeatable habit rather than a one off.

Andoni Iraola has also shown a willingness to use Gakpo differently than his predecessor did, shifting him into a right sided role at points last season and doing so again this term following Bradley Barcola’s £123million arrival, which has added serious competition down the left. Rather than being squeezed out by that signing, Gakpo looks like he has found another route to relevance, drifting inside from the right, combining early with midfield runners and picking passes that suit Isak’s movement in behind.

The human side of a difficult year

It would be easy to talk purely in numbers here, but that misses a large part of the story. Gakpo endured a genuinely miserable run of form during the closing months of Arne Slot’s time in charge, a period that hit large parts of the Liverpool squad as results collapsed, and he has also been carrying difficult news in his personal life alongside all of that. None of it has been used as an excuse to hide.

Virgil van Dijk addressed the situation directly after the 2-0 win over Ipswich, making clear just how much respect there is inside the Liverpool dressing room for the way Gakpo has handled a genuinely tough period while still contributing on the pitch. The captain was blunt about it too, saying in essence that he was simply glad his teammate had stayed at the club and that few people outside the squad truly understood what he had been dealing with.

That sort of dressing room backing tends to matter more than most transfer columns give it credit for. Players do not perform in a vacuum, and knowing that your captain and your head coach are firmly behind you, even during a stretch when your form and your future both look uncertain, has a way of showing up in performance levels once the pressure eases.

There is also a broader squad context worth factoring in. Liverpool spent heavily on their front line over the summer, and it would have been easy for a player with Gakpo’s recent history to get lost in the shuffle behind bigger transfer fees and louder headlines. Instead, he has made himself close to undroppable through performances rather than reputation, which tends to be a far more durable route to a regular starting shirt under a new head coach still working out his best eleven.

Our view

We think this is one of the more encouraging subplots of Liverpool’s early season. Gakpo was never short of raw ability, the real question was always whether the end product would arrive consistently enough to justify a regular starting role in a rebuilt front line. Three assists for a £125million striker inside the opening weeks is about as strong an early answer as he could realistically have given.

Barcola’s arrival should sharpen Gakpo rather than threaten him. Healthy competition for places has a habit of bringing the best out of players who feel they still have a point to prove, and Gakpo very much looks like a man doing exactly that right now. If Liverpool can keep him fit, keep rotating him sensibly between the flanks, and keep that early understanding with Isak growing, this has the makings of one of the more satisfying redemption stories of Iraola’s first season at Anfield.