Manchester United’s £80m Midfield Target: A Contrast with Liverpool’s Regrets

Manchester United and Liverpool went shopping in the same Premier League market last summer. One club walked away with value; the other with regret.

A sweeping analysis by The Athletic, ranking all 189 Premier League signings from last season, has thrown that contrast into brutal focus. All four of United’s headline arrivals landed inside the top 40. Liverpool, who twice smashed their own transfer record, saw one of their deals branded “catastrophic” and ranked dead last.

United’s business vindicated

For all the criticism aimed at Old Trafford in recent years, United’s recruitment department can point to this list with something close to satisfaction.

• Matheus Cunha came in at 40th.
• Bryan Mbeumo at 38th.
• Benjamin Sesko at 29th.
• Senne Lammens, remarkably, was rated ninth.

Four signings, four successes, all described as having produced superb debut seasons.

These weren’t just squad fillers. They changed the tone of United’s campaign, gave the side a sharper edge and, crucially, looked like players whose best years still lie ahead.

And then there’s the man who finished even higher than Lammens.

Mateus Fernandes, now firmly on United’s radar and valued at around £80m by West Ham, was ranked eighth overall. The Portugal international only joined West Ham from Southampton for £40m, yet in a sinking side he became a beacon.

When Lucas Paqueta departed in January, West Ham needed someone to take the ball, take responsibility and take risks. Fernandes stepped into the role of chief playmaker and did all of it. Tackles. Duels. Recoveries. Long-range “worldies”. Piercing passes. He stitched together a team that was otherwise falling apart.

Relegation has changed the landscape. West Ham drop to the second tier with a player who looks far too good for it. The expectation is clear: he will be sold. The only questions are where, and for how much.

United are circling. The attraction is obvious. Fernandes idolises Bruno Fernandes, the current United captain, and sources indicate personal terms would be no obstacle. The battle will be internal: do United commit a huge chunk of their budget to one midfielder, and how hard do West Ham dig in from that £80m starting point?

Liverpool’s costly misfires

While United’s signings climbed the rankings, Liverpool’s told a different story.

They twice broke their transfer record. £116m on Florian Wirtz. £125m on Alexander Isak. These are the kind of numbers that are supposed to reshape a team, redefine a season.

The rankings are unforgiving.

• Wirtz scraped into the top 100 at 97th.
• Isak, whose campaign was ravaged by injuries, slid all the way down to 172nd out of 189.

Between fitness problems and inconsistency, the return on that combined £241m has been underwhelming at best.

Liverpool did find some value, but it came lower down the list. Milos Kerkez, at 49th, emerged as their best-rated signing. Hugo Ekitike followed just behind in 50th. Giorgi Mamardashvili slotted in at 73rd, Freddie Woodman at 89th. Jeremie Frimpong, expected to be a dynamic force, languished at 119th. Giovanni Leoni, whose ACL tear on debut wrecked his season before it began, finished 143rd.

None of those stories, though, were as damning as the one that propped up the entire table.

Elliott loan branded ‘catastrophic’

Harvey Elliott’s loan move from Liverpool to Aston Villa was ranked 189th out of 189. Last. The worst signing of the 2025/26 Premier League season.

The assessment was brutal. A “catastrophic deal for both clubs and the player.”

Villa surged through a great season under Unai Emery, yet Elliott barely featured. He made just three starts. Emery, by the report’s account, simply didn’t trust him. While John McGinn embodied Villa’s heart and Emery their brain, Elliott was likened to an appendix – present, but expendable.

Attempts to salvage the situation failed. Negotiations in January to cut the loan short went nowhere. Talks in February to remove an obligation-to-buy clause, which would have triggered after 10 appearances, also collapsed. Elliott made his ninth appearance in March and then effectively became unusable in the middle of an injury crisis.

“Shambolic,” was the verdict on the handling of a 23-year-old attacking midfielder widely regarded as highly talented. A season that was supposed to accelerate his development instead stalled it, while offering little to Villa and even less to Liverpool’s long-term planning.

Xhaka tops the lot, Fernandes rises, questions remain

At the top of the rankings sat a familiar Premier League name in an unfamiliar shirt. Granit Xhaka, once a lightning rod at Arsenal, reinvented himself at Sunderland and drove them to an astonishing Europa League qualification in their first season back in the top flight. A transformative signing, and The Athletic’s number one.

Just seven places below him, Fernandes has emerged as one of the window’s great success stories. West Ham paid £40m and watched him become their heartbeat in a doomed campaign. Now they stare at life in the Championship with an £80m asset that Europe’s elite are beginning to covet.

United are giving serious thought to making him their next midfield cornerstone. The player wants the move. The numbers are steep, but not impossible. Relegation has weakened West Ham’s bargaining position, yet they know they hold one of the division’s standout performers.

Liverpool, by contrast, must sift through the wreckage of a record-breaking outlay that delivered little of the expected uplift, capped by a loan deal described as catastrophic.

One club looks ready to double down on a clear recruitment direction. The other has to decide whether to rip up the plan and start again.

When the next rankings land, will Fernandes be striding out at Old Trafford, or will Liverpool’s hierarchy still be counting the cost of last summer’s missteps?