Liverpool sour on star just months after record-breaking deal

Liverpool sour on star just months after record-breaking deal Liverpool have soured on one star and it's just a matter of months since his record-breaking deal with the club. Can he turn things around? Liverpool have struck many, many massive deals in the last 18 months. It's been quite ridiculous, really, as the spending is unlike anything we've ever seen at Anfield before. They've broken their transfer record at least twice. Possibly three times depending on who you believe on the final price for Bradley Barcola. They certainly broke the British transfer record by signing Alexander Isak. There were enormous new contracts for Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk in 2025. And just the overall spend has been record-breaking. Again, we've not seen anything like it from Liverpool before. But that isn't to say it's flawless. Far from it, actually. And one deal struck earlier this year now looks particularly poor. Ryan Gravenberch dropped Liverpool signed Ryan Gravenberch to a bumper new contract earlier this year. The total deal in salary was worth around £87m, per De Telegraaf, and we quickly called it a nightmare . That's a situation that's continued , too. Gravenberch has struggled for over a year now, not just for form but to find a place in this Liverpool team that makes sense for him. He's struggled as a holding player because he doesn't want to hold his position. He's struggled as more box-to-box player as he tends to get lost without a defined job. And he struggles as a no.10 because he just doesn't have the spacial awareness for it. It's all come to a head. Liverpool went into a massive match at Anfield on Sunday against Arsenal and Gravenberch was not selected to start, instead finding himself behind a teenager in Trey Nyoni, a midfielder who wasn't given a new contract in Alexis Mac Allister, and a playmaker who hasn't quite proven himself in Florian Wirtz. And it's important to remember that this was a record-breaking contract for Gravenberch. Liverpool have never paid a midfielder so much, even if we understand that Dominik Szoboszlai's subsequent contract was worth in the same range. This wasn't the plan. It's been a little over six months since Gravenberch signed the deal and it was absolutely supposed to lock him down as the key midfielder in the side. Instead, he can't get in the team and faces a real fight to win a place back. Liverpool - or at least, Andoni Iraola - has soured on him as a starting player and that really, really wasn't the plan.