Liverpool's Deadline-Day Signings Make Them EPL Title Contenders for Future

Liverpool’s signings of defenders Mamadou Sakho and Tiago Ilori as well as the loan arrival of winger Victor Moses won't ensure that the Reds can run away with the Premier League title this season, or indeed in any of the next few.

As impressive as their winning start to the season has been, Liverpool simply aren’t there yet. A club, any club, doesn’t go from finishing seventh to sixth to eighth to sixth to first in five years without a serious injection of cash, talent and/or the simultaneous weakening of their rivals.

No, instead of making outlandish claims about just where the club is heading in the short term, Liverpool are looking more into the future, with the three new signings they confirmed on transfer deadline day all primed to play big roles in it.

Here is where those new arrivals make the difference, and here is where they can help turn their club into serious challengers for the league title in the coming seasons.

Given the amount spent on him, his one-time status as one of the most impressive young defenders in the world and his 14 caps for France, Sakho has, of course, been the headline arrival.

Here Liverpool have bought themselves a player who could seemingly be the bedrock of their defence for the next decade.

At just 23 years of age, Sakho has youth on his side as well as the potential to even further his ability in the white-hot atmosphere of the English game.

His new teammate Ilori is only 20, but with the Portuguese youngster less accustomed to first-team football, it might be a while before we get to see him demonstrate his undoubtedly impressive talents on the big stage. He’ll need to be patient, but he’ll also need to be confident.

Ilori very much remains one for the future, but the third of the new trio more with the present in mind.

Moses has only joined Liverpool on a season-long loan move from Chelsea, but the vast array of attacking talents they possess in West London make it difficult to imagine the wide man heading back there once this current campaign is over.

He’ll no doubt be thinking that, should he impress at Anfield, a permanent move to the Reds will become a reality next summer, setting up an environment that benefits both the player and his current club greatly.

Play well and earn yourself a place in the Liverpool squad. That’s exactly what Moses will be thinking now, and his attitude should rub off on all of his new teammates.

Because that is the sort of mindset that has been missing from this Reds squad in recent years, years in which they’ve found themselves scrambling around in mid-table with only the cup competitions to provide them with any solace.

There is now, however, a gradual change of approach, with Brendan Rodgers determined to lead the club back up to the heights they once called home.

It’ll take a while, of course, and they might not even get there, but these new arrivals―as well as the signings of the likes of Simon Mignolet in the summer―are an indication of where Liverpool want to be.

True, the unsuccessful pursuits of players such as Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Willian this summer show that the club still isn’t regarded as too attractive a proposition compared to others just yet, but at least Liverpool were seen to be competing for the signatures of the best on the market. To be shopping at Harrods and not in the bargain bins, in other words.

Too much money has been wasted on signings in years previously, but these new additions look to be smart ones, and all have come at reasonable, realistic prices.

If that is the start of a sea change that sees Liverpool―who sit at the top of the table at the time of writing, after all―start to reverse the mistakes of recent years, then Sakho, Ilori and Moses might just be the club’s most important signings for some time.