Why Liverpool Deliberately Delayed Jeremy Jacquet’s £60 Million Arrival

The Jacquet arrangement suits Liverpool and Rennes for very different reasons.

Jérémy Jacquet won’t be a Liverpool player until July. | Neal Simpson/Sportsphoto/Allstar/Getty Images

Liverpool and Rennes reportedly had numerous reasons to agree a £60 million ($82.2 million), chief among them being the Premier League side’s desire to avoid falling foul of any financial regulations.

Jacquet was comfortably the biggest deal sealed on Deadline Day by any Premier League club but, despite a clear need for defensive reinforcements, the talented centre back will not officially become a Liverpool player until the 2026–27 season. This arrangement was reached with last summer’s spending in mind.

The Reds enjoyed an extravagant outlay ahead of the 2025–26 campaign, committing more than £450 million on a bevvy of new recruits as they broke the British transfer record not once but twice. Liverpool were in a position to conduct such aggressive business and still adhere to the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules (PSR) due to their lack of extensive spending in previous years and a windfall of prize money from their Premier League triumph.

However, the coffers are not infinite.

By delaying the confirmation of Jacquet’s deal, Liverpool are able to put his £60 million fee in the books for the 2026–27 season, as L’Équipe report. Were the deal to have gone through in January, Rennes would also have expected at least one instalment of the fee for Liverpool’s second-most expensive centre back ever. Now those payments can be deferred to next season and a fresh set of accounts.

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Why Liverpool Didn’t Buy Jacquet and Loan Him Back to Rennes

Jérémy Jacquet had plenty of suitors to consider. | Neal Simpson/Allstar/Getty Images

Jacquet’s delay most obviously benefits Rennes in the sense that they get to keep their best defender for another six months. “We negotiated the transfer, obtained the amount that the club looked for, we respected the player’s wish and we have him for the remainder of the season,” manager Habib Beye surmised. “It’s the reality of the market. We simply don’t have the means to fight.”

Had Liverpool finalised Jacquet’s transfer in January and loaned him back to Rennes, his availability for the remainder of the season would have come with caveats.

Any Liverpool loanee is effectively tethered to their parent club with an umbilical cord demanding a constant stream of information. The Premier League club typically request huge data dumps of physical and medical information, potentially shifting the player’s focus towards their next destination rather than their current home.

In the short term, signing Jacquet on Monday night would have likely prevented him from featuring for Rennes in Tuesday’s French Cup tie against Marseille. The 20-year-old was duly entitled to feature and played the full 90 minutes.

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Will Jacquet Be Worth the Wait?

Jérémy Jacquet was heavily linked with a move to the Premier League this year. | Jean Catuffe/Getty Images

“A defender who’s pretty calm on the ball,” was Jacquet’s description of himself as a player, which is to be expected of a youngster who grew up as a midfielder idolising Paul Pogba. “I might sometimes seem a bit nonchalant—I’ve already been told that—but I’m very focused and I try to analyse situations well.

“And then a big part of my game is playing the ball out well, finding the right little pass and breaking the lines.”

Jacquet has caught the eye in Ligue 1 with this nonchalant penetration, invariably playing some role in the buildup to Rennes’ most threatening long passing sequences. Yet, he is still in the infancy of his career and the sum involved—making him the most eighth-most expensive defender of all time—has attracted scorn from some corners.

World Cup winner Christophe Duggary lambasted the deal as “ridiculous,” branding Liverpool as “suckers” for coughing up so much more for a talented player who is some distance from amassing any whisper of a proven track record.

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