Our Take: Saying No To Manchester City’s £80m Gakpo Bid Was The Correct Call

We think Liverpool made the right judgment call this summer, even if it was not an easy one. Cody Gakpo had two different suitors circling late in the window, and for a spell it genuinely looked like he might leave Anfield before a ball had even been kicked in August. In the end Liverpool held firm, and we are glad they did.

Two bids, one firm answer

Tottenham Hotspur made the first move, with Roberto De Zerbi keen to strengthen his forward line, and Liverpool did not immediately close the door on a sale. Manchester City then entered the picture in the final days of August, tabling an offer worth £80 million in total, split between £75 million guaranteed and a further £5 million in add-ons. Liverpool said no to that proposal on August 31, and the timing of the rejection tells its own story.

Why the timing mattered more than the fee

This was never really about whether £80 million was good business on paper. It was about what replacing a forward of Gakpo’s quality that late in a transfer window would actually have meant in practice. Clubs selling under time pressure rarely get to shop calmly for a replacement, prices climb, options shrink, and panic signings tend to follow. Liverpool clearly decided that keeping a proven, versatile attacker was worth more than banking the fee and hoping to find value elsewhere.

Gakpo sounds settled under Iraola

Since then there has been no lingering drama, and Gakpo himself played it down when asked about the saga ahead of the Fenerbahce game. He said his mindset had not changed, that the summer had been a hectic one with plenty of noise around him, but that he was simply focused on enjoying his football. He added that there was not much to discuss once the decision had been made, and that, as far as he was concerned, was that.

That is the kind of response Liverpool will want to hear. A player who could easily have pushed for an exit has instead settled back into Andoni Iraola’s plans without fuss, and with the fee question now firmly in the past, the focus shifts to what he can offer on the pitch rather than in the transfer columns.