Over the past 24 hours, speculative rumours emerged suggesting Cody Gakpo could be seeking to leave Liverpool this summer after a disappointing 2025-26 season where his inconsistent performances led to him being seen by some as one of the key reasons for those disappointing results.
That singling out was never entirely fair on Gakpo, who was one of the few fit forwards that head coach Arne Slot had at his disposal after Richard Hughes sold off the likes of Luis Diaz and Darwin Nuñez last summer and failed
to properly replace them.
Yet with Slot now out, new head coach Andoni Iraloa in, and the need for major attacking signings to correct for last summer’s transfer window mistakes it’s perhaps not unreasonable to think Gakpo’s place in the squad might not be entirely certain. As such, while seemingly more reliable chatter has since rubbished the idea that Gakpo is seeking to leave, it has left the window open to a departure.
According to TalkSport’s Ben Jacobs, Gakpo hasn’t asked to leave and Liverpool aren’t actively looking to sell—but they also aren’t unwilling should a suitable fee arrive. A suitable fee is said to be in the £70M region, aka what Barcelona recently paid to sign Anthony Gordon from Newcastle.
Gakpo, who has a contract through 2030, came close to joining Bayern Munich last summer but Liverpool in the end preferred to sell Diaz. Bayern were expected to sign Gordon before he joined Barcelona. As such, there will be plenty of speculation about them returning for Gakpo if Liverpool are now open to selling the Dutch forward.
The 27-year-old has also been linked with clubs in Serie A including AC Milan, though Italian clubs in recent years have rarely had the ability to pay market value for talent from other top European leagues.
Regardless, if Liverpool have put a price on the player it likely means there’s at least a decent chance of Gakpo departing. However, that would leave Liverpool with just 17-year-old Rio Ngumoha as an established first team winger while Alexander Isak would be the only senior striker available to start the season with Hugo Ekitike likely to be absent until 2027.
