One former Manchester United striker believes that Liverpool will be ‘a threat’ in what he expects to be a ‘wide open’ Premier League title race in 2026/27.
The Reds began last season as champions and favourites for a repeat triumph, especially after a muscle-flexing summer spend of £446m, but a horrendous campaign saw us scrape a fifth-place finish and ultimately cost Arne Slot his job.
Andoni Iraola has since taken charge, with expectations understandably lowered from 12 months ago, but Dwight Yorke doesn’t think that Kopites should be content to merely qualify for the Champions League.
Speaking to football betting specialists BOYLE Sports (via Liverpool Echo), the former Trinidad & Tobago international said: “Liverpool are a threat. If you spend £500m on new players, you’re a threat. That’s it. Otherwise, what’s the point? You can’t spend £500m to go backwards. That makes no sense.
“Of course they are going to compete this year. Liverpool are coming into this season wanting to win the Premier League title. This squad has got the taste for winning titles in the Premier League and the Champions League. They want to win it all again.
“When you’re signing players for £116m and £120m, these are the numbers that mean you have to win the league. You can’t be off the pace, especially this year, because Manchester City are in a moment of change so the title race is wide open.
“Any team that has something about them can win the Premier League this season, no problem. I’m not buying into this idea that Liverpool are going to be way off. No chance. Not with the investment that’s gone into that squad over the last few years.”
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Yorke probably seems more optimistic about Liverpool’s title chances than most Reds supporters, especially now that we’ve lost Mo Salah, Andy Robertson and Ibrahima Konate over the summer and will be without Hugo Ekitike for the rest of 2026.
However, he’s right in saying that the club shouldn’t be regressing after such an aggressive transfer spend last summer. The likes of Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak weren’t signed for £100m+ so that we’d be content to just finish inside the top four on an annual basis.
The 2026/27 campaign does seem like the most open in years when it comes to potential Premier League winners. Arsenal are now the team to be shot at; Man City still have a formidable line-up even without Pep Guardiola in charge; even Man United might fancy their chances of going close with the momentum they’ve built up in recent months.
Nobody expected Liverpool to even challenge for the title two seasons ago when Slot took charge, never mind winning it with four matches to spare, so it’s not unthinkable that the Reds could now rise as rapidly as they fell last term. However, we’re starting from a much lower base this time around than the Dutchman did in 2024.
Going from fifth to first in the space of 12 months does seem rather improbable, but with Iraola at the helm and several game-changing players to call upon, LFC should be much closer to the top next season than they had been in 2025/26.
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