Liverpool
Slot praises owners for paying Diogo Jota contract to his family
Arne Slot: Liverpool owners paid Diogo Jota’s contract to his wife and children; fans mourn. deeply.
Liverpool manager Arne Slot has confirmed that the club’s owners paid the full contents of Diogo Jota’s contract to the forward’s family after his death over the summer. Slot described the gesture as exceptional and stressed that such moves are not common in the game.
Rute Cardoso had three children with Jota and the couple were married just 11 days before he died. Slot made clear that no amount of money can replace that loss, but he underlined the significance of the club’s decision.
“Owners are mainly criticised, like managers, but the way they’ve handled this situation, by paying his wife and his children all the money from the contract [is commendable],” Slot told TNT Sports . “Maybe people think it’s normal, but it is not in football.”
Liverpool’s spending this summer has been record breaking. The club reportedly spent as much as £415 million ($553.2 million) on transfer fees before wages, and the remaining two years on Jota’s deal is thought to cost in the region of £10–15 million.
Slot also highlighted the response across Merseyside and the role it has played in the period since the tragedy. “The grief of the city, that is what makes it so special for me to work at this club,” he continued. “The way the fans conducted themselves after that tragedy, how many flowers there were, all the memorials, I almost get emotional thinking about it.
“It’s unbelievable what our fans have done—and our players as well, the way they’ve conducted themselves in and around the funeral, then we had to train again.
“There are moments where I feel what his wife and children must feel, because it sounds so hard. But our lives continue, people expect from me that I prepare them for everything.
“That sometimes feels a bit difficult, knowing how hard it is for the family, for the parents, who are in the phase they are still going through and will go through for the rest of their lives.”
On top of the Liverpool windfall, Jota’s family have another dutiful provider in the form of Rúben Neves. The former Wolverhampton Wanderers midfielder played with his Portuguese compatriot for club and country, striking up a friendship which Neves is adamant will stretch beyond both their lives.
Liverpool
Robertson on the grief that changed Liverpool’s season
Robertson says Liverpool’s 2025-26 season was shaped by grief after Jota’s death and the dressing room was broken.
Andy Robertson has described the emotional weight of Liverpool’s 2025-26 campaign after Diogo Jota’s death, saying the club’s struggles went far beyond tactics or transfer business.
The former Liverpool fullback said the atmosphere inside the dressing room was shattered in the aftermath of the tragedy, and that the pain affected every part of the team’s season. Liverpool finished fifth, ended without a trophy and later saw Arne Slot, Mohamed Salah, Ibrahima Konaté and Robertson depart.
“It’s difficult to describe or talk about it, because what we went through was horrendous,” the Scotland international said of Jota’s death on the Stick to Football podcast. “If I’m talking about the new signings, they’re coming into a club that is heartbroken, and they’re trying.
“That’s when I felt so sorry for these guys because they had signed and they were signing for big money. If I’m talking about football, when it took them months to settle in, because we were like ghosts.
“We didn’t care about football. That was the truth of it. We didn’t care about football because we just lost one of our best mates in the changing room.”
Liverpool’s decline was severe even before the emotional backdrop was fully considered. After winning the league in 2024-25 and spending close to £450 million ($600 million) last summer on players including Florian Wirtz, Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitiké, the side had to wait until the final day of 2025-26 to secure Champions League qualification.
They closed the campaign on 60 points, 25 behind title winners Arsenal. Under Slot, the club’s defeat total rose from four in his debut league season to 12, with half of those losses coming in the opening months after Jota’s passing.
“All footballers have that edge, don’t we, and I think when you lose that edge, sometimes you can’t perform to your best,” Robertson continued. “I think last season we lost the edge. When I look back on it now, I think we lost that determination a little bit, because I know at times we were going, ‘What’s the point?’
“Look at what his family are going through, look at his kids, but we were grieving. It was our mate, at the end of the day. He’s not just a footballer to us. He was a teammate, a friend. He was everything. For us it was incredibly difficult.”
Jota’s memory remains part of the club’s response, with Liverpool retiring number 20 ahead of last season and wearing a special honorary patch on their shirts.
Liverpool
Mbappe reveals why Liverpool move was rejected for PSG
Mbappé explains why he chose PSG over Liverpool in 2017, despite Klopp and his mother’s support.
Kylian Mbappé has explained for the first time why he chose Paris Saint-Germain over Liverpool in 2017, despite strong encouragement from his mother and co-representative, Fayza Lamari.
At the time, Liverpool had made a serious push for the forward, with Jürgen Klopp winning over Lamari during the pursuit. She visited the city, the stadium and met the people, and came away convinced the club was special. Mbappé recalled how firmly she backed the move, saying: “My mom was a big fan of Jürgen Klopp and the favourite destination for my mom was Liverpool . She wanted me to go there,” Mbappé told The Athletic . “I didn’t listen because I wanted to play in my city, Paris. I didn’t want to leave my country before I was someone. But yes, my mom was always saying ‘Liverpool—you’re going to be there, playing at Anfield, it’s going to be insane for you.’ I was like, ‘O.K.!’
“She went there [for] the first step of the negotiations. She went to the city, she went to the stadium, she met the people. She was like, ‘It’s a wonderful club, everybody’s so kind, it’s a family club, a big club.’
“She went to Anfield and fell in love with it. She watched a few games alone, to feel the atmosphere, because she wanted to imagine me in this stadium.
“All the time we were talking. ‘What do you think, Mom?’ She’d say, ‘For me, you have to go to Liverpool. I said, ‘O.K., O.K., O.K.!’ because Jürgen Klopp was an amazing manager. I met him and had a wonderful relationship with him. I had big respect for him.”
Klopp later described the attempt as “the most expensive non-transfer we [Liverpool] invested in,” and recalled the unusual private-jet meetings that took place during the chase. But Mbappé made clear that his mind was elsewhere. “I said to him, ‘Whatever decision I take is going to be a good decision because we are talking about some of the biggest clubs in the world.’
“It’s a funny story. But in the end I took the decision to go to PSG because for me, born and raised in Paris, there was no better feeling than to show I could be a star in my home town.”
His mother had one final reaction after the PSG move. “You’re a genius at football, Kylian,” Mbappé’s mother told him in the summer of 2017 when he moved to PSG. “Aren’t you going to be bored in Ligue 1?”
Liverpool
Mac Allister steps back from contract comments as Liverpool call remains unresolved
Mac Allister says his contract comments came from emotion, not criticism, as Liverpool weigh his future.
Alexis Mac Allister has softened the tone of his recent remarks about his Liverpool future, saying his comments were driven by emotion rather than any attempt to criticise the club.
The midfielder had disclosed that his agent was told during contract discussions that Liverpool are “not in a position to renew”, with his current deal running to 2028. He also said he had rejected the chance to leave in the summer transfer window, which left the impression that he was applying pressure publicly. Two weeks later, while arriving in Argentina for national team duty, he made clear that was not his intention.
“In that press conference, because they were asking me a bit about my future, it just came from within,” he admitted. “It was more about my emotions than judging the club or anything like that. In the end, they’re the ones who handle these things and make the decisions. That’s fine with me.”
Mac Allister remains under contract for this season and next, and he has previously said he would “give 100% for [Liverpool] … until the last day I’m here”. He still hopes for a new agreement, but also accepts that the situation may move in a different direction.
“Hopefully it’ll be for more years,” he said of his time at Liverpool. “But if it’s two, that’s absolutely fine. I’ll enjoy it, enjoy it with my family, because I have no doubt it’s one of the best clubs in the world.”
From Liverpool’s point of view, a long extension does not appear as straightforward as the deals handed to Gravenberch and Szoboszlai. The club is wary of committing heavily to a player who turns 30 in December 2028, especially with resale value in mind and recent examples shaping caution.
If a renewal does not happen, the most logical outcome would be a sale next summer. Real Madrid have previously been linked, while Paris Saint-Germain could also view him as a possible answer to Fabián Ruiz, who turns 31 this season.
