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Premier League 2025-26 preview No 12: Liverpool
Big-money signings have shown the champions’ ambition but the death of Diogo Jota cast a shadow over the summer
Guardian writers’ predicted position: 1st (NB: this is not necessarily Andy Hunter’s prediction but the average of our writers’ tips)
Last season’s position: 1st
Van Dijk wants Liverpool to tighten up and backs club to sign reinforcements
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‘You defend as a team, you press as a team’
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Champions begin defence of title on Friday night
Virgil van Dijk has acknowledged Liverpool must improve defensively to retain the Premier League title and backed the club to bring in more reinforcements before the end of the transfer window.
The Netherlands defender revealed after Sunday’s Community Shield that he had spent the previous five days in bed with a virus. Van Dijk was culpable for Palace’s first equaliser in the 2-2 draw when he brought down Ismaïla Sarr for a penalty and Liverpool’s defence struggled to contain the Senegal forward, who scored his team’s second to take the game to a shootout won by Palace.
Crystal Palace to stay in Conference League after losing appeal at Cas
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Palace were demoted from Europa League by Uefa
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Club hoped to overturn decision related to ownership
Crystal Palace have lost their appeal against demotion from the Europa League and will take their place in the Conference League. The court of arbitration for sport confirmed on Monday that the FA Cup winners were unsuccessful in overturning the decision made by European football’s governing body to punish them for contravening its rules over multi-club ownership.
Uefa demoted Palace to the Conference League after they were deemed to have breached regulations because John Textor held shares in Palace and Lyon, who also qualified for the Europa League. He has since sold his 43% stake to his fellow US businessman Woody Johnson.
John Textor teams up with football financier in push to buy Sheffield Wednesday
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Working with former investment banker Keith Harris
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Former Palace shareholder Textor keen on crisis-hit club
John Textor has teamed up with the football financier Keith Harris in an attempt to buy Sheffield Wednesday. Harris, a former investment banker, has brokered takeovers at West Ham, Manchester City and Aston Villa and put together a consortium to buy Everton last year, although that bid was unsuccessful.
Textor was granted exclusivity in his attempt to buy Everton through his investment vehicle, Eagle Football, but also failed to complete. The American was not working with Harris, but they got to know each other through the Englishman’s work for Sportsbank, which this year offered Textor £230m to buy 45% of Eagle. The multi-club operation owns Lyon, Botafogo, the Belgian club RWD Molenbeek and was the biggest shareholder at Crystal Palace until selling to Woody Johnson last month.