Liverpool are the only Premier League side not to have made any signings this summer but they appear determined to ‘ignore’ the worried voices of their fans.

For those who support the Three Lions Liverpool For fans who don’t quite subscribe to the mantra of ‘Scouse, not English’, this has been a sub-optimal summer. After Gareth Southgate and his players spent a month dismissing legitimate tactical concerns at the European Championship as mere ‘external noise’, Michael Edwards’ slogan of ‘ignoring the external noise’ was used to justify the lack of players arriving at Anfield.

Liverpool remain the only Premier League club not to have made a transfer this summer. Instead, there’s the sneaking belief that they’ll land a few Hot New signings. And they should definitely own up to it: take a picture of Arne Slot in the stands with his arms around the new No. 10 version of Sepp van den Berg, Fabio Carvalho, Stefan Bajcetic and Harvey Elliott, all holding bits and pieces of a ridiculously long Liverpool scarf or something. The press conference introductions, the social media announcements, the in-house interviews about how the manager convinced them to sign on, all of them.

Slot has been inactive in his public assessment of the situation. He wants to properly assess the squad before making any decisions about what it needs and doesn’t. He has often praised the quality of the group he has inherited, and has reiterated that any new signings must meet that high standard. And ultimately, as head coach, he will enjoy working with what he is given; that was one reason his reputation was so appealing to Liverpool.

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Richard Hughes sang a similar hymn, and it’s perhaps worth noting that this period of apparent stagnation was both inevitable and perhaps entirely necessary. Liverpool not only changed managers, they also appointed a new sporting director in the same summer, neither of whom had previously experienced a club at this level. The transfers of power from Edwards to Julian Ward and then Jorg Schmadtke underlined how difficult one element of this transition can be; after nearly nine years of Jurgen Klopp’s leadership, change was never going to be seamless.

But even if Liverpool are not taking a step back, it is hard to shake the feeling that those around them are at least trying to take steps forward. Manchester City have retained a key part of their champions squad and have added a superb winger in Savinho. Arsenal are in the process of relentlessly upgrading their excellent starting XI with Riccardo Calafiori and Mikel Merino. Aston Villa, Totteham, Chelsea, Newcastle and Manchester United, all members of the chasing pack, far behind the top three, have all made significant moves that mean there is more to come.

Perhaps the final few weeks of this window are when Liverpool will step up their plans. Hughes was talking about the business of all teams in general when he predicted a “climax in August”, but he must have known that this would carry the expectation of fans reflecting on their own deals. The rejected bid for Wataru Endo, the loan departures of Calvin Ramsay and Fabian Mrozek, and The collapse of the £120m deal with Newcastle that was probably always too risky to go through It satisfies no appetite.

While there is no suggestion that Liverpool should sell ahead of transfers like their panicking counterparts at PSR, the lack of exits to grease the wheels seems to be a factor. If Gordon is the kind of signing they want – one that is high on both player quality and difficulty of execution – then the departures become significant. It might be a stretch to describe their struggle to sell players at incredible value as a weakness, but they are certainly no longer their industry-leading strength.

The Reds’ only meaningful fees last summer were for Fabinho and Jordan Henderson from Saudi Arabia. They weren’t the only team to use this Middle Eastern cheat code, but without it, fewer suitors would be queuing up to spend big on Liverpool players as they used to.

Van den Berg is valued at £20m – five times his career appearances for the club – and Nathaniel Phillips, who has been bounced around on loan for years, will cost clubs around £8m. Asking £25m for Caiomhin Kelleher actually seems a bit low when it is known that potential fourth-choice centre-back and full-back Joe Gomez is priced at £45m and recent reports suggest that diminutive Carvalho will command a ‘significant fee’.

What Liverpool need could be the Bournemouth of the early Premier League era: a team blinded by the sight of Liverpool on their CV and willing to pay the premium for it. The £40m-plus haul from the Cherries for the most extreme options of Jordan Ibe, Brad Smith and Dominic Solanke has secured Edwards a future statue outside Anfield and a job for life at FSG.

Liverpool have made the foolish move of appointing Hughes, one of the most happily-attended bidders.

The loss of a stable income stream for disposable squad players, the complexity of major international competitions and a huge turnaround in the boardroom have put Liverpool at a disadvantage. And it’s not like the misguided existential fan crisis of summer 2019, when fans panicked over the recruitment of two youngsters and a pair of reserve goalkeepers while other teams were investing so much. The misperception at the time was that the club was wasting an opportunity by failing to build on solid foundations; now it feels like the truth.

The only thing Liverpool seem to have properly built this summer is a siege mentality, doubling down on trying to defend a passive transfer window only serves to compound the frustrations of a disgruntled fan base. It almost worked for England but it doesn’t seem like a sensible precedent to follow.

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