Following Liverpool’s 3-1 win away against Aston Villa at Villa Park, Paul Joyce confirmed that Liverpool want to sign Cody Gakpo & that negotiations were already at an advanced stage. Approximately an hour later, PSV’s Official Twitter account tweeted that an agreement with Liverpool for the 23 year old Dutch international had been reached. Cody Gakpo is currently in England undergoing a medical whilst completing all legal formalities before the deal is announced by the Merseyside club.
Money Involved?
Liverpool fans often state how they are unhappy with the clubs lack of transfer activity & rightfully so at times...however, Liverpool look to have struck an unbelievable deal with PSV for the signing of Cody Gakpo. The up front fee that Liverpool have to pay immediately is just £37,000,000 which can potentially rise to £50,000,000 based on included add ons (As per Neil Jones) Similarly to Luis Diaz last January, this is a shrewd piece of business from Liverpool.
As of now, it’s unclear what sort of money Cody Gakpo will be earning at Liverpool, but according to many reliable sources, the 23 year old will sign 6 year deal at Liverpool keeping him at Anfield until 2028.
How did the transfer come about?
Well, Fabrizio Romano confirmed that Liverpool scouts were watching two forwards during the World Cup. One of them being Mohammed Kudus & the other being Cody Gakpo.
It was clear that Liverpool were in the market for a new forward following Diogo Jota’s injury keeping him out until around February, followed by Luis Diaz’s huge injury set back after he returned to full training during Liverpool’s mid season training camp. The Colombian forward will sit out for the majority of the season. Roberto Firmino seems to pick up a lot of injuries these days as well, with his contract running out in the summer, Liverpool made signing a forward in January their main priority.
Liverpool had originally planed to go for Cody Gakpo in the summer transfer window, but again similarly to Luis Diaz, their arch nemesis in Manchester United were sniffing around Gakpo which is another huge factor into forcing Liverpool’s hand into getting the deal completed.
Cody Gakpo’s Journey So Far
Cody Gakpo signed for PSV’s academy back in 2007 & has stayed at the Dutch club ever since. He started playing for Jong PSV (which is essentially PSV’s reserve team) from 2016 until 2019 where he managed to score 17 goals In 26 games. He made his official first team debut for PSV in 2018, and has been an important player for them ever since. His big break out season came in 2021/22 where managed to score 21 goals whilst registering 15 assists in 47 games. The biggest highlight for the Dutch forward in that season was scoring the winning goal against Ajax in the 2022 KNVB Cup Final. Despite big interest in the following summer transfer window from Manchester United, Leeds United & Southampton, the young forward stayed at PSV for the start of the 2022/23 campaign.
Gakpo started the current season in the same way as he finished the last. So far he has bagged 13 goals in 27 games for PSV, whilst registering 17 assists in that time. So that’s 30 goal contributions in in 1,960 minutes. That works out at just over one goal contribution every 65 minutes. An incredible record.
Of course the moment where the world got to watch Cody Gakpo & what he’s all about was during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Gakpo scored 3 goals in 5 games for Holland & was their main focal point during the tournament. We know that Liverpool had been looking at him since before the tournament, but I believe after proving that he could do it on the worlds biggest stage, that confirmed to Liverpool that this is the guy that they need to bring in.
What sort of player are Liverpool getting?
Cody Gakpo is naturally a left winger who cuts inside onto his preferred right foot to go for goal. Gakpo offers great versatility & can also be deployed in a more central role just like we saw for Holland in the World Cup. He likes to start on the left wing & drift into a more central position to get his shots off. We have seen Darwin Nunez play this role for Liverpool a few times this season which suggests that Gakpo will be able to fit into Liverpool’s set up almost instantly.
Gakpo offers a good amount of pace & agility on the ball, whilst also standing just below 6ft4 which makes him a very complete forward for Liverpool's attack. He can score almost any sort of goal imaginable & offers unpredictability that opponents will struggle to deal with.