After the Reds swooped on the Dutchman over the holidays, Cody Gakpo joined Liverpool at the start of January, but his first few weeks at Anfield weren’t easy.
Gakpo didn’t fit in right away when he joined a Liverpool team that was struggling to maintain continuity or recover the identity that had distinguished them in previous seasons. Unlike the top three players the Reds were used to in the time of Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino, and Sadio Mane, the big, rangy forward who joined had a rising reputation around Europe.
Gakpo was a player who had been heavily linked with Manchester United prior to joining Liverpool. His early performances were used as some sort of justification by United fans for their team not signing him, and the recently turned 24 year old was seen as indicative of the problems at the Reds and the club’s once lauded recruitment strategy. Gakpo was played through the middle and out wide in the early weeks in a side that lacked confidence and belief.
To say the least, it was harsh to assess Gakpo so soon into his stay at the team and on a team that had not yet recaptured its rhythm from prior seasons.
With a game in hand over Liverpool and a 3-0 victory over Leicester City on Monday night at the King Power Stadium, the Reds were able to close the gap to the top four teams to just one point. Newcastle United and Manchester United, who both still trail Liverpool by one point, are now nervously eyeing the Reds after almost celebrating their Champions League qualification a few weeks ago.
With their victory over the Foxes, Liverpool made it seven straight victories in the Premier League. Jurgen Klopp’s team has now given themselves a chance to finish in the top four, which appeared improbable only a few short weeks ago.
Performance levels have increased across the board, virtually to a man. One of the players who has increased their contributions dramatically is Gakpo, whose £37 million fee, which at the time appeared like a bargain but now feels like an overpayment, is very much back in the former category.
Gakpo now resembles a Liverpool player; he makes an impression; he adds variety to the Reds’ front line; and he has gained height to demonstrate that he more than belongs. Fans of the Reds are eager to see what he can do when the new season begins because they expect the Reds to maintain the high standards they have been setting for the previous few weeks.
Gakpo has experienced the highest increase in value for Liverpool since the beginning of the year, according to data analysts at Football Benchmark and the CIES Football Observatory in Switzerland, who use a variety of indicators to estimate a player’s value in the transfer market.
Gakpo’s market value as of right now is £61 million, up £7.3 million from the $53.7 million evaluators gave him in January, according to Football Benchmark. In this case, the Reds paid almost 45% less than Football Benchmark had estimated his value to be. Gakpo’s performance since joining has led to a market value that is 64% higher than his purchase price, according to Football Benchmark’s metrics. The only other players to have experienced an increase in market value since the beginning of the year are Ibrahima Konate, Alisson Becker, and Diogo Jota.
According to CIES researchers, Gakpo is worth €80 (£69.5m), which is an increase of £32.5m over the purchase price for the Dutch international and an over 88 per cent gain in valuation.
The numbers point to a victory for Liverpool’s hiring team, one that hadn’t appeared to be in the bag in Gakpo’s first few weeks at the club.
Gakpo’s age profile suggests that, should he continue to improve and continue on his current trajectory, his worth might practically triple soon, illustrating why the club has found the Anfield recruitment strategy to be so successful in recent years. In order to prevent the troubles of this season from reoccurring, the Reds’ owners, Fenway Sports Group, will have to support a fairly big rebuild of portions of the team this summer. It is hoped that some more of that transfer success will arrive then.
