The Salah succession and the ghost of Darwin Nunez

The 2025/26 season is crawling toward its conclusion, and the front offices at Anfield and Old Trafford are already sweating. Forget the remaining fixtures for a minute. The real war is happening in the boardroom, and if the early whispers are anything to go by, both Liverpool and Manchester United are staring down the barrel of a chaotic summer transfer window.

They are no longer simply bringing players in. They are desperately trying to fix the expensive mistakes of the past while their rivals circle like sharks.

Let's start with Liverpool, because the situation on Merseyside feels distinctly end-of-an-era. There is no replacing Mohamed Salah. You can only hope to survive his departure. As FourFourTwo has reported, Salah is preparing to leave Anfield, with a massive European club looming as the leading contender for his signature. Liverpool fans have dreaded this day for years.

The sheer volume of goals, the gravity he commands on the right flank, the fear he instills in opposing fullbacks — you do not buy a player who replicates that. You buy three players and hope the aggregate output is close. Opposing teams currently adjust their entire defensive shape to account for Salah's positioning. Once he leaves, that tactical respect vanishes. Left-backs will push higher, and Liverpool's midfield will face pressure from angles they haven't worried about in years.

The timing could not be worse, mostly because Liverpool’s recent track record with big-money attacking replacements is genuinely awful. Just look at the cautionary tale of Darwin Nunez. Liverpool managed to recoup £46million when they finally dumped the Uruguayan to Al-Hilal last summer. At the time, the recruitment team probably patted themselves on the back for mitigating a disaster.

But the reality of that deal paints a grim picture of Liverpool's scouting failures. The Mirror notes that Nunez has already been axed from the Al-Hilal squad to make room for a January signing. He is now looking for another new club. Let that sink in for a second.

A striker who cost Liverpool an astronomical fee could not even hold down a squad registration spot in the Saudi Pro League for a full season. The sheer waste of resources on Nunez set Liverpool back two years in their attacking evolution. He never had the first touch required to navigate low blocks in the Premier League, and his decision-making in the final third was erratic at best. Now, they have to navigate the post-Salah era knowing they absolutely cannot afford another expensive mistake up front.

Midfield drain and the Italian temptation

The frontline is not the only area requiring open-heart surgery. Liverpool's midfield depth is suddenly looking remarkably fragile. Curtis Jones, a player who was supposed to be the homegrown heartbeat of the next generation, is being heavily linked with an exit.

According to the Mirror, Inter Milan are circling. Jones has reportedly been told to quit Liverpool and look at the path forged by Scott McTominay in Serie A. It makes a frustrating amount of sense. Inter play a system that would completely cover Jones's occasional defensive lapses while amplifying his ball-carrying ability in transition.

In Italy, the tactical pacing allows technically gifted ball-carriers to dictate play without being immediately swarmed by three pressing hounds. If Jones leaves, Liverpool lose a valuable rotational player and a homegrown quota spot. But more importantly, it highlights a developmental stagnation at Anfield. Jones has flashed brilliance, but he has never nailed down a permanent, undisputed starting role.

He often holds onto the ball for one touch too long, slowing down Liverpool's famously rapid transitions. If he thrives in Italy, it will be another damning indictment of Liverpool's inability to maximize their academy products during a defining phase. Selling him might balance the books, but it forces them back into the market to buy a replacement profile they should have already developed in-house.

Manchester United's expensive goalkeeping prison

If Liverpool's problems are about replacing legends and moving on from failed experiments, Manchester United's problems are entirely self-inflicted contract traps. Enter Andre Onana. When United signed the Cameroonian, the promise was a total tactical revolution. He was going to transform them into a modern, possession-dominant side capable of breaking the most aggressive presses in Europe.

Instead, he has been a chaotic presence, alternating between baffling errors and world-class saves. Opposing teams quickly realized that if you cut off Onana's short passing options and force him to go long under pressure, his accuracy drops significantly. The main issue extends beyond the pitch. The real nightmare is on the spreadsheet.

United are desperate to offload him this summer. But there is a massive catch. Reports suggest Onana is actually set for a pay increase despite being on the chopping block. It is the classic Manchester United tax. You give an underperforming player a heavily incentivized or escalating contract, decide you want to sell them, and then realize absolutely nobody in Europe is going to match their inflated wages.

Who is buying Andre Onana on higher wages after the season he just had? The answer is nobody. United are going to be stuck paying him to leave, or worse, stuck starting him because they cannot afford a replacement while his salary sits on the books. It is a spectacular failure of long-term squad planning. The INEOS ownership group was supposed to fix this nonsense, but the Onana contract is a financial anchor tied around their necks.

Dodging the Arsenal bullet

Amidst the gloom, United did manage one massive victory. Kobbie Mainoo is not going anywhere. The Mirror revealed that Arsenal had a transfer plan ready for Mainoo before the midfielder signed his new long-term contract. Michael Carrick reportedly played a role in putting an abrupt end to the Gunners' ambitions.

This is a terrifying "what if" for United fans to consider. Imagine Mainoo in Mikel Arteta's midfield. His press resistance, his ability to receive the ball on the half-turn under extreme pressure, his spatial awareness — Arsenal would have turned him into an absolute monster. He is exactly the profile of player Arsenal have spent years searching for to complete their central trio alongside Declan Rice.

Mainoo has the rare ability to scan the pitch before receiving the ball, a trait that sets elite midfielders apart from average ones. United keeping him is the absolute bare minimum expected of a major club, but given their recent history of sheer incompetence, tying down their best academy product in a decade feels like a massive win.

Mainoo is the only player in that United midfield who consistently plays with his head up. He is the foundational piece. If Arsenal had poached him, you could have essentially liquidated the Old Trafford project right then and there. It would have been the ultimate embarrassment, proving that United are now merely a feeder club for serious title contenders.

The brutal reality of the upcoming window

Both clubs are heading into a summer of severe vulnerability. The Premier League is utterly unforgiving, and neither team can afford to stand still. Liverpool have to execute the hardest trick in football: replacing a generational icon without collapsing the entire structure. They have to find goals, width, and fear factor without overpaying for another expensive flop.

Manchester United, meanwhile, are fighting their own balance sheet. They are trapped in a cycle of trying to sell unsellable assets. The Onana situation is going to dictate their entire defensive recruitment strategy. You cannot build from the back when your goalkeeper is a financial liability.

The stakes could not be higher. Get this summer wrong, and the gap to the top of the table becomes a chasm. Get it right, and you buy yourself a lifeline. But looking at the current state of both front offices and the glaring holes in both squads, confidence should be extremely low.

My prediction for the summer? Liverpool will completely fumble the Salah replacement. They will end up buying a highly-rated winger from a secondary European league who will struggle with the relentless physicality of the Premier League, resulting in a distinct drop-off in their attacking output by Christmas. Manchester United, predictably, will fail to sell Onana, forcing them into a panicked, cut-price loan deal for a backup keeper while their defensive frailties remain completely unresolved going into the new season.