Michael Owen Baffled by Liverpool's Quiet Transfer Window

Michael Owen has never been shy about calling it as he sees it. This summer, he’s looking at Liverpool’s transfer business and shaking his head.

The former Anfield striker admits he is “absolutely” surprised by how restrained his old club have been in the market, particularly after the seismic departure of Mohamed Salah and a serious injury to Hugo Ekitike that has stripped away depth and goals from Andoni Iraola’s forward line.

Liverpool have moved, but only once in attack so far. Victor Munoz has arrived from Osasuna for £34.5million to bolster the left side, a signing with obvious upside but also clear expectation attached. Talks continue with Paris Saint-Germain over Bradley Barcola, the gifted France international, while there is also interest in Champions League holders’ teenage prospect Ibrahim Mbaye.

For Owen, that’s not quite enough. Not in terms of volume, and not in terms of profile.

He believes Liverpool missed a glaring opportunity when West Ham United went down and Jarrod Bowen was briefly there for the taking, before the England forward committed his future with a new deal at the London Stadium.

“I would have gone more Jarrod Bowen as one player to come in,” Owen said, underlining how highly he rates the winger’s blend of work-rate and end product.

Premier League-proven, already battle-hardened, and with a track record of goals, Bowen, in Owen’s eyes, was tailor-made for a Liverpool side suddenly stripped of Salah’s reliability.

Losing Salah, he stressed, is not something any elite side can simply absorb. Goals, assists, big moments in big games – that’s the void Liverpool are staring at. Owen is adamant another attacking signing has to arrive before the window shuts, warning that the current forward options are too thin for a team with Liverpool’s ambitions.

Right now, the club’s energy appears locked on Barcola. The 21-year-old has the profile Liverpool like: young, technically sharp, explosive in transition. But the price is high, and Owen suspects any deal of that magnitude could force a reshuffle higher up the pitch, with at least one established attacker potentially making way to balance the books and the squad.

Liverpool’s recruitment team are used to walking that line. Hit on the right player, and the attack can be reshaped in a single stroke. Get it wrong, and a season can drift.

Owen’s focus isn’t only on who might come in. He is also looking closely at those already in the building who must now justify major investment.

Liverpool’s £100million-plus duo, Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz, are under the microscope. Both arrived with huge reputations, both endured difficult first seasons for very different reasons.

Isak’s campaign was wrecked by injuries, the most brutal a broken leg that ruled him out for four months. Rhythm gone, sharpness dulled, he never truly imposed himself as Liverpool’s spearhead.

“He had a tough time last season,” Owen said of the striker, pointing to the long shadow such an injury can cast. Some players simply fight back to where they were. Others never quite rediscover that extra gear.

The hope, and the expectation, is that if Isak can recapture the form he showed at Newcastle and again at the World Cup, Liverpool will suddenly look far more dangerous. The tools are there: movement, composure, a ruthless streak in front of goal. What’s missing is continuity.

Wirtz, too, needs to step up. The gifted attacking midfielder struggled with adaptation issues last term, finding the pace and physicality of English football a steep learning curve. One season in, Liverpool will demand more incision between the lines, more creativity, more goals. Owen shares that view: the settling-in period is over; now comes the return.

There is another concern nagging away at him, one that cuts to the heart of the club’s identity.

Curtis Jones, into the final year of his contract, is being courted from abroad. Inter have yet to meet Liverpool’s valuation, while Galatasaray are also circling. The possibility that Iraola could lose the only senior Scouse player in his squad does not sit comfortably with Owen.

“It’s always nice to have homegrown players playing for Liverpool,” he said, tapping into a feeling that runs deep on the Kop. Local players carry something different – a sense of place, of history, of responsibility. When they make it from the Academy to the first team, the connection between stands and pitch tightens.

Owen knows that feeling better than most. He was that local lad once, racing through the ranks and into the Liverpool shirt. He remembers the electricity that came with it.

That is why the idea of an Anfield dressing room without a single senior Scouser jars. Modern football is ruthless. Jack Grealish left Aston Villa and took the backlash with him. Stars move on, club legends become assets and balance-sheet calculations. Liverpool have felt that too.

But strip away too much of the local heartbeat, and something harder to measure starts to slip.

Right now, Liverpool stand at a crossroads in this window. One marquee attacker short, one homegrown talent potentially on the move, and two big-money signings under pressure to ignite. The decisions made in the next few weeks will shape not just the squad list, but the soul and cutting edge of Iraola’s first season.

Owen has made his judgement. Liverpool, he insists, cannot afford to get this one wrong.