It's become clear over the last year that the Selecao shot-stopper cannot be relied upon to stay fit for an entire campaign
Liverpool announced on Monday that Jarell Quansah had signed a new, long-term contract with the club. It was just reward for an academy product who has been excellent since breaking into the senior squad at the start of last season at a time when former manager Jurgen Klopp was short on numbers in the centre of defence.
However, while the 21-year-old Quansah – who has been at Liverpool since he was five – is a popular player among the fans, it was hardly the renewal news they'd been patiently awaiting. With Virgil van Dijk, Mohamed Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold all out of contract at the end of the season, Reds are presently desperate for even a sign that any one of that key trio are close to committing their future to the club.
Until their respective situations are resolved, Liverpool's owners, the Fenway Sports Group (FSG), and the recruitment strategy being employed by the likes of CEO of football Michael Edwards and sporting director Richard Hughes, will remain under intense scrutiny.
However, while the fan focus right now is understandably on Van Dijk, Salah and Alexander-Arnold, it's already become clear that the transfer team made a couple of very astute decisions during the summer transfer window…
Follow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱Getty ImagesSurprising summer signings
Liverpool announced just two transfers during the summer – neither of which was expected.
The £10 million ($13m) signing of Euro 2020 star Federico Chiesa from Juventus was a ridiculously low-risk gamble too good to pass up – even accounting for the Italian's injury issues. Liverpool were hardly stuck for options out wide but it did, at least, feel like the kind of "opportunistic" signing Hughes had mentioned shortly after his arrival from Bournemouth at the end of last season.
The £25m ($33m) acquisition of Giorgio Mamardashvili from Valencia raised far more eyebrows, though.
AdvertisementGetty Images SportWhy a goalkeeper?
Mamardashvili had been outstanding at Euro 2024, playing a pivotal role in Georgia's surprise run to the last 16, but in Alisson Becker and Caoimhin Kelleher, Liverpool were arguably already in possession of the world's best No.1 and the world's best No.2, respectively.
It didn't feel like signing a shot-stopper should have been a priority for Hughes & Co. – particularly at a time when Liverpool supporters were still coming to terms with the fact that the club had once again failed to sign either a specialist No.6 or a left-sided centre-back.
Then there was the fact that Mamardashvili wouldn't even be arriving on Merseyside until next summer, which effectively meant keeping Kelleher at Anfield against his will for another season.
Getty Images SportKept against his will
Kelleher, who has served Liverpool so well as Alisson's understudy and become something of a Carabao Cup legend, was understandably disgusted that the Reds rejected all offers for his services during the summer while at the same time effectively confirming that he will not become the club's next first-choice goalkeeper.
"I made it clear in the last few years, I want to go be a No.1 and play week in, week out," Kelleher told reporters in Dublin in September. "The club made the decision to get another goalkeeper. From the outside looking in, it looks like they have made a decision to go in another direction.
"My ambition has always been clear. My mission was to go out and play. But, at times, it is not always in my hands."
However, if Liverpool's treatment of Kelleher has been questionable at best, it's already clear that they've done right by themselves here.
Getty Images SportReliable in every sense
Once Liverpool decided that Kelleher wasn't good enough to be Alisson's long-term successor, they needed to line up a top young goalkeeper, while at the same time ensuring that they retained quality cover in between the posts. By holding onto Kelleher until Mamardashvili arrives, that's precisely what they've done.
The 24-year-old Mamardashvili has barely put a foot wrong since joining Valencia from Dinamo Tbilisi in 2021, establishing himself as one of the best shot-stoppers in La Liga, and something of a penalty-saving specialist. Perhaps even more significantly, though, he's played all but one of Valencia's Liga games since the start of the 2022-23 campaign, and even made a club-record 69 appearances in a row at one point.
In that sense, the contrast with Alisson couldn't be starker.
