COULD ISAK SIGNAL A GALACTICO SUMMER AT LIVERPOOL?

Isak, Isak Baby...

Jul 27, 2025

Well, well, well, how the turns table. Just days on from me walking back my Ekitike AND Isak prediction/transfer wet dream, the sexy goal scoring bastard has decided to take matters into his own hands, tell Newcastle he thinks they smell, and leave us all in need of fresh bed sheets once again.

Now listen, I have had something of a sobering week since I let Romano Mania run wild on me. A cacophony of life related crapness, injury, illness and lost sleep has dulled my usually unstoppable, effervescent nature over such matters. But, we move. So, ask me if I'm ready to get sucked back in again?

Go on, ask me.

I'm serious, say it out loud.

If you said it out loud you are the best of people and I love you.

The answer isn't just a yes, it's a resounding FUCK YES!!

What even is this world? Remember when we bought Paul Konchesky and Christian Poulsen and Joe Cole and tried to convince ourselves that everything was still going to be alright? Well, I sure as shit do. In the years that followed, we made a t-shirt that had a worn picture of those incredible summers signings, alongside the equally thrilling gaffer du jour in Roy “The Hodge” Hodgson. With it was the caption. “Remember. It Could Be Worse.” Damn right past me, damn right.

That was the summer we started making content on youtube for Redmen. The difference is night and day man, night and day.

In 2025, Liverpool are the reigning champs, the most successful club in England, back on our perch and fixing to stay there. LFC are behaving like the best in the land, and I'm honestly still not sure I can wrap my head around it. This is not how “my” Liverpool conduct themselves. I'm much more accustomed to us playing the role of the outsiders, the underdogs, finding ways to win that burn the lungs and swell the heart. In my experience what Liverpool are doing this summer is, whisper it, very United.

I know, I know, eurgh right? Does saying, ‘very Bayern’, make it better? Or very Juve or Real Madrid? A little bit? Maybe let's focus less on the name and more on the ethos. That ethos being to treat every club who finished below you as a feeder club. Whether you like Bayern or not, one thing is certain, they behave as though the league is theirs by right, and will stop at nothing, on or off the pitch to ensure that the other teams in the league feel the same. The Mancs made an industry of doing this during the 90's and 00's. City have been doing it for the best part of a decade too, Chelsea did it before them.

Those sides turned themselves into perpetual bogeyman. They laid a marker down before a ball was kicked that said the league was theirs to lose. Every week their opponents knew they were facing the best. Their aura would extend beyond even the games they figured in, indirectly casting a shadow over their rivals games too. Think about Kevin Keegan losing his mind on live TV, Wenger’s Arsenal embroiled in pizzagate, Rafa Benitez spouting facts. Christ, think about all those seasons of Klopp v Pep! How much did you stress out watching City games??? It was like playing an extra game a week.

Well that is Liverpool's mission this season. Behave like champions, act like the most successful club in England. Live rent free in your rivals every waking moment. Be the bogeyman.

We're on holiday at the minute, and my four year old nephew asked my thirteen year old son why he was having so much food for dinner.

“Because i'm a big boy and I'm hungry.”

Sounds about right to me.

No more scraps from the top table. Full plates with the choicest cuts of meat.

It's not a perfectly analogous situation, but I've had a few times like that with Redmen TV. To me it will always be the little back bedroom passion project, always fighting for scraps and eternally grateful for them. It stuns me on those occasions when we shoot for the moon and actually get there. All this week, between our family health nightmares, I have been watching Dan Clubbe and Chloe Bloxam absolutely smashing it on pre-season tour in Hong Kong. They have been going to events and interviewing legends galore. Ste Hoare and Joe Baker did similar in America last summer. Still grafting, still grateful, but at a bigger dinner table. Shooting for the moon and getting there. The last time I did a pre-season solo was Bangkok and it was a nightmare. Probably because I'm too timid and too used to our role on the outside of things. I don't like throwing my weight around. In many regards my way is very much the old Liverpool way. To choose the grind over the chance at the short cut. Choose the simple pass or the shot at glory. Joe Allen or Steven Gerrard.

In so many ways this new Arne Slot/Richard Hughes era has been such a breath of fresh air. It's a bit like reading Batman comics instead of Spider-man. Spidey will win out in the end, but he'll get put through the absolute, physical and emotional ringer to do it. Batman, well, he's always one step ahead isn't he? The smartest and most equipped man in the room. Even when it looks like he might be down, you know it's all part of the plan, all within his sphere of influence. There's a piece that comes from that. There will be twists and turns, but know that the outcome is in safe hands.

That was my one great take away from watching Arne Slot go about his business last season. He set a bar. A bloody high one that told everyone in the squad and at the club that he expected us to play like Champions, day in and day out.

In the past it felt like we had a lot of players who worked hard to get to Liverpool then stopped. Klopp's mission was to get everyone who made it to Liverpool to believe that was the beginning of the hard work.

Arne Slot appears to have taken what Klopp built and then added an ability bar on top of that. Now Liverpool expect you to work harder than everyone else, AND be better than them at football too. This is why we are selling players like Quansah, and Clark, and (possibly) Doak, Morton and Elliott. All really, really good players, who could and should have excellent top flight careers ahead of them. Just not at Liverpool. No disrespect. It's not for a lack of trying, or some sort of failure (or absence) of personality. This is the bar.

It's an unfairly small sample range, for which I apologise, but even in the 2-4 defeat to AC Milan, look at Wirtz. Elliott is great, I love him. But Wirtz? The bar.

We had the same situation with Mignolet and Karius. A year spent arguing over their merits, the pros and cons, the fine margins. Then Alisson. Suddenly where there were fine margins there was an abundant gulf in class. The bar.

Maybe the best example was Gomez, Matip and Lovren. All fine defenders, all international/Champions League calibre, all good enough to play for a team that wins the big pots. There were other lads like that in the market. Stefan De Vrijj was the most touted amongst them. Liverpool didn't need another, they needed the best. The rest is history.

Now listen, you can't have eleven of those players, let alone twenty two. But no one at Madrid, or Bayern or United (when they weren't dogshit) ever said, “nah we won't sign another world class player, we've got too many.” If one became available, and it was within their budget, they would throw on their best suits and biggest smile and head to the market.

So Isak.

If Liverpool don't get him, I remain convinced we'll be fine, great even. There is still work to be done in other areas, and more so if Diaz and Darwin do move on, but the squad looks damn good so far.

But if we do get him? Ooof. Yeah. Landscape changed. Galactico Summer baby.

What do you think? Ready to get hyped again?

Maych Publishing

Discussion about this post