There's no hiding from the fact that the 2025-26 season was rather disappointing for Liverpool.
The Anfield outfit finished fifth in the Premier League and, if the English clubs didn't do well in the European competitions, they would have missed out on Champions League football.
This would have been catastrophic for the Anfield outfit, especially since they need to do another full-on rebuild of their first-team squad.
Most people expected Liverpool to be challenging for silverware as soon as Alexander Isak was welcomed through the doors but, thanks to injuries and a lack of cohesion among their players, that was far from the case.
So, now that they have a new manager at the helm and are gearing themselves up to start another season, it's hardly surprising to see links with several different players emerging almost every day.
And, since we're nowhere near the end of the transfer window, these rumours and links are likely to continue emerging for at least the next month or so.
One of the main areas among Liverpool's ranks that needs upgrading is their attack.
Mohamed Salah has exited and, with Hugo Ekitike out injured until who knows when, Liverpool are very weak in attack.
Indeed, Victor Munoz has been brought in but, since he's never played in the Premier League and wasn't the most prolific player for Osasuna, it's unclear how well he will do in the Premier League.
This lack of knowing has led to several players being linked with an Anfield switch and, even though Munoz and Yan Diomande have been the only ones that Liverpool have made a bid for, the Reds seem to have plenty of options to choose from.
And, after the latest news to be shared by Sky Germany journalist Patrick Berger, it feels like the Anfield outfit need to make their move for one of Borussia Dortmund's main targets before he gets taken off the market by the Bundesliga outfit.
"Borussia Dortmund continues to negotiate for dream signing Kosta Karetsas (18): According to Sky sources, the Dortmund bosses plan to travel to Genk this week to negotiate on-site with KRC sports director Dimitri De Condé," he wrote via his personal X account.
"A solution before the Dortmund Japan trip is the goal.
"The last offer was just under €30m and wasn't enough for the Belgians yet. They're demanding €35m fixed and hoping for €40m in the overall package.
"Borussia Dortmund remains in pole position, even as AC Milan shows interest. The player and his family favor a move to Dortmund. A basic agreement between Karetsas and BVB is already in place."
Now that Diomande's move to Liverpool is off, Richard Hughes and Andoni Iraola are going to have to try and explore the other options that they had up their sleeve.
Most football fans expected the Ivorian to be the Reds' marquee signing this summer and potentially become their Salah replacement.
Everything seemed to be lining up perfectly with Diomande even saying that Liverpool would be his dream club but, in the end, he turned his back on the Reds and claimed he wanted to join Paris Saint-Germain instead.
This led to new options being explored by Liverpool and recently, KRC Genk's Kostas Karetsas has emerged as a potential option.
The Greece international is only 18 years old but, during the 2025-26 season, he played 49 games across all competitions for the Belgian outfit and contributed to 21 goals with 18 of them being assists.
The main position that Karetsas played was right-wing with most of his goal contributions coming from when he was used there.
So, even though he could end up costing around €40 million (£33 million) it feels like he'd be a solid investment which is exactly why Liverpool need to poach him from Dortmund, even though they're the ones in pole position to acquire his services.
