Liverpool Signs Djylian N’Guessan for Future Development
Liverpool have moved again for the future, and this time the call has come from Saint-Etienne.
Fabrizio Romano has delivered his trademark “here we go” on a deal for 18-year-old attacker Djylian N’Guessan, with Liverpool agreeing terms to sign the Saint-Etienne forward and park him in France for one more season before bringing him to Anfield in the summer of 2027.
It is a classic Liverpool play: buy early, stash the talent, and hope to be a step ahead of the market by the time the rest of Europe wakes up.
N’Guessan secured as long-term project
The move gathered pace when Foot Mercato journalist Santi Aouna revealed that Liverpool and Saint-Etienne had entered advanced talks over N’Guessan, whose contract with the French club runs until 2027. Saint-Etienne have been open about their willingness to cash in on their young star, and Liverpool moved quickly once the door creaked open.
N’Guessan, who can operate off the wings or through the middle, is viewed inside Anfield as a “great prospect for the future,” according to Aouna’s reporting. With the clock ticking towards the deadline, the final details were thrashed out.
Romano then confirmed the agreement: Liverpool have a deal in place with Saint-Etienne, N’Guessan will remain in France for another campaign, and the player has already given the green light after Liverpool received authorization to conduct his medical. The transfer follows the capture of Lucca Brughmans, another teenager earmarked for the next era rather than the next matchday squad.
Liverpool’s recruitment department, reshaped and scrutinised in recent windows, is again betting on upside.
Gakpo, City and the winger domino
All of this unfolds against a much more immediate and volatile storyline: Cody Gakpo’s future and Liverpool’s scramble for a senior winger.
Romano has stated that Gakpo has an agreement in place with Manchester City on personal terms, with City also submitting an £85m bid to Liverpool. The figure is huge. The decision is simple in theory, complicated in practice.
Liverpool will only accept if they secure a replacement on the right flank before the deadline. If they cannot, Gakpo stays. Every call, every negotiation now feeds into that single pressure point.
The leading name on their list is Ismaila Sarr. Not Yankuba Minteh. Not a mystery option from the continent. Sarr is the one Liverpool are pushing hardest for at this stage.
Crystal Palace, though, are holding their ground. They have rejected at least one Liverpool bid this week and, while they are quietly scouring the market for potential wide replacements, they are not prepared to lose Sarr on the cheap. Liverpool’s written offer totalled £50m – £45m plus £5m in add-ons – and Palace turned it down.
No verbal talk. No vague interest. A formal bid, rejected.
Sarr, for his part, wants the move. He wants Liverpool. That desire adds tension but not yet resolution. Until Liverpool meet Palace’s valuation, or Palace soften theirs, the winger sits in limbo and Gakpo’s move to Manchester City hangs in the balance.
A window on a knife-edge
This is where Liverpool’s window now lives: one eye on 2027 with N’Guessan and Brughmans, the other locked on the final hours of this market and the fate of Gakpo, Sarr and a frontline that could look very different by the time the shutters come down.
Agents know Liverpool need a winger. Clubs know Liverpool have money to spend if Gakpo goes. Offers, names and proposals are flying in “every minute,” as Romano put it, but the club’s decision-makers have narrowed their focus.
The long-term pipeline is filling up. The short-term question is sharper, more ruthless, and far more consequential: do Liverpool cash in on Gakpo and trust themselves to land the right winger in time, or does this entire domino chain stall with the Dutchman still in red and Sarr still at Selhurst Park?
