John Gibbons: Red Army can march with swift transfer recruits

After a thrilling season, Liverpool found themsleves trophyless. To put that right next campaign they'll need to spend, but the early signs are good...

As a wonderful, exhilarating but ultimately trophyless season came to a close, all the Liverpool fans I spoke to were saying the same thing. We need to kick on now.

The season needs to be a springboard to success rather than another false dawn. We’d had those after 13/14 and 08/09, even 01/02, where excellent Liverpool teams had come so close and we’d thought “and now we win”. And then we didn’t. We can’t let that happen again.

So it was wonderful to see such determination from the management team to kick on so quickly. Before The Anfield Wrap bus was even back from Kiev Liverpool had signed a player. And not just any player. A much sought after defensive midfielder who has many of the qualities we currently lack.

Is this Liverpool’s year? Get over to PaddyPower.com for your football bets

You can tell he’s sought after by the number of “didn’t want him anyway” articles from fanzines like The Manchester Evening News. It must have been other writers with the same name writing those “why Fabinho is perfect for Manchester United” articles. Unlucky lads.

Truth is Liverpool seem to have stolen a march on many clubs to do a deal for Fabinho and announce it so quickly, leaving rival clubs and internet ITKs all scratching their heads.

For those who don’t follow Liverpool’s transfer business closely I can promise you “quickly” and “quietly” are not words that have been frequently used to describe it. More “long” “drawn out” and “decided to join Borussia Dortmund”.

So if this is a new ruthless, ambitious Liverpool then long may it continue. FSG look like they will back Klopp heavily this summer, with Jurgen having so far operated under negative net spend, mostly due to the sale of Phil Coutinho. All that money that has been resting in our account, plus the money earned from the Champions League run, should be finally seen on the pitch next season as the club find it easier to secure top targets.

But who and where? Liverpool certainly need more fire power for the next time one of our forwards is powerbombed out the game and Nabil Fekir seems to fit the bill.

He’s talented, versatile and a bit likely to kick off so should be popular at Anfield. Generally there seems to be an acceptance that this squad is a bit too nice so if they are looking to address that too then great.

Hopefully they can get Fekir over the line too, but how close they are to doing do varies wildly depending on who you ask. So I’m staying calm until he’s pictures with a red scarf and buying a house 10 miles out of the city.

Then what? I would still argue Liverpool need more attacking options, but that will depend on how much faith Jurgen has in the young talent coming through.

Dom Solanke finally broke his duck in the last game of the season but still might be better spending next season on loan deciding what type of striker he would like to be.

There is also Harry Wilson, so impressive at Hull on loan, and Rhian Brewster who needs convincing that Liverpool is the best place for his development. Which buying two lads ahead of him is unlikely to do.

And then there is the goalkeeper… The good news for Loris Karius is that Jurgen Klopp isn’t the sort of manager to make a decision on one game, no matter how calamitous.

The bad news is that he seems he was interested in a new goalkeeper anyway. Whether that is an obvious number one (Oblak, Alisson) or competition will depend probably on availability and price.

Then it will probably be up to Karius. Stay and fight the incoming ‘keeper as well as his demons or start afresh elsewhere? We shall see. But in the meantime it is pleasing to see Liverpool acting so decisively. For now, at least.

Get over to PaddyPower.com for all your football bets