Pedro Neto: Liverpool's Persistent Transfer Interest

Two years on from Liverpool’s first serious look at Pedro Neto, the idea simply refuses to die.

Back then, Anfield officials spoke to the winger’s camp while he was still at Wolves. The club chose a different path, Neto went to Chelsea, and Jamie Carragher publicly winced at what he felt Liverpool had passed up.

Now, at 26, the Portugal international finds his name drifting back into Liverpool’s orbit – this time from the other side of a mixed spell at Stamford Bridge.

A winger who “would jump at” Anfield

On Anfield Index’s The Transfer Show, journalist Dave Davis laid out the current landscape. Liverpool, he said, are hunting not just one wide forward but several. The squad needs fresh legs out wide, and the recruitment team know it.

“Who are Liverpool going to move for? It’s clear the wingers are the priority, and I’m saying that plural,” Davis said, outlining a shortlist that has moved beyond the obvious, headline names. “Liverpool are now on the alternate list.”

That’s where Neto comes in. The club are, according to Davis, back in close contact with super-agent Jorge Mendes – and one of Mendes’ key Premier League clients is the Chelsea winger.

“He is very distinct, Neto, if I’m trying to be positive about this,” Davis explained. “He is a carrier, his passing is good. He is a crosser. The cross expected threat, 95th percentile. The cross value added, 93rd percentile.”

Then came the line that lit up the rumour mill.

“Our info is getting this stood up today. Neto would jump at this. They nearly did him when he was at Wolves.”

The enthusiasm, though, was tempered. Davis admitted he was “poking holes” in the idea even as he talked it through. There is interest, there is willingness on the player’s side – but that’s a long way from a deal.

Numbers that tease, numbers that nag

Neto’s Chelsea career has been a study in contrasts. On the one hand, he has 19 goals in 103 appearances and played a starring role in the club’s Club World Cup win a year ago, scoring three times at the tournament. On the other, his Premier League output remains underwhelming for a forward of his profile.

Nine goals in 69 league games for Chelsea is not the kind of headline figure that usually drags Liverpool’s data department to the table. It’s the same total Cody Gakpo produced across 52 matches in all competitions for Liverpool last season – and Gakpo absorbed heavy criticism for his inconsistency.

Where Neto fights back is in the underlying metrics. His creative output stands up well against his peers in the English top flight. Per 90 minutes in the 2025/26 Premier League, he sits in the upper tier across several key categories:

• Pass completion: 87.3% (89th percentile)
• Successful crosses: 1.29 (88th)
• ‘Big chances’ created: 0.41 (81st)
• Assists: 0.2 (78th)
• Chances created: 1.8 (78th)
• Successful dribbles: 1.6 (76th)

Those are the kind of numbers that catch Liverpool’s eye. A high-volume ball-carrier. A reliable crosser. A player who consistently manufactures chances, even if the final shot or finish has often belonged to someone else.

The Salah question and the Chelsea problem

Any link between Liverpool and a right-sided forward now comes with the same subtext: life after Mo Salah.

Neto offers a logical profile on paper. He is proven in the Premier League. He can operate off the right, cut in from the left, and even slide into central areas when needed. Tactically flexible, technically secure, and with enough pace to stretch defences – the template fits.

There’s also no taboo anymore about moving directly from Chelsea to a rival. Kai Havertz and Noni Madueke went to Arsenal. Mason Mount chose Manchester United. Stamford Bridge is no longer a one-way gate.

Yet this is where the fantasy cools.

Chelsea would demand a serious fee for a player in his prime years, and Liverpool, under their current model, rarely pay top dollar for forwards whose goal output lags behind their creative data. The club usually want both: threat and end product. Neto has shown flashes of the former, not enough of the latter.

Add in the fact Liverpool are eyeing multiple wingers, not just one marquee option, and any move for the Portuguese forward begins to look complicated rather than inevitable.

A door half-open

So the picture is this: a player who, by reliable accounts, “would jump at” the chance to join Liverpool. A club that admired him at Wolves, maintains a relationship with his agent, and needs wide players. A set of underlying numbers that whisper “there’s more to come”.

Against that stands a modest Premier League goal record, the financial and political realities of dealing with Chelsea, and a recruitment team that has rarely been sentimental about the one that got away.

Neto to Liverpool? The idea makes a certain footballing sense. It just doesn’t yet look like the kind of move this Liverpool regime actually makes.

If the call ever does come, though, there seems little doubt which way the player will run.