Liverpool dodge bullet as Richard Hughes failure may have saved them from disaster

Liverpool's fanbase haven't been the biggest supporters of Richard Hughes' transfer business this season.

Before the campaign even kicked off, everyone knew that the Reds needed another rebuild.

Mohamed Salah, Ibrahima Konate and Andy Robertson all exited the club for free and, with Curtis Jones now also gone, there are so many gaps that the Reds still need to plug.

Of course, Andoni Iraola can make do with what he has at his disposal but, if Fenway Sports Group are wanting Liverpool to get back to the top, plenty more money needs to be spent.

However, there have been some transfers that Liverpool haven't managed to get over the line that could actually end up being good for them.

That is, especially after the first weekend of Premier League football that has been played.

Liverpool will be thankful that they missed out on Joao Gomes this summer

The Premier League's opening weekend of fixtures brought around some rather unexpected results.

Liverpool only just managed to draw 2-2 with Newcastle and Tottenham, who have already spent an obscene amount of money, lost 3-0 against Brentford.

After all the deals that the North London outfit have made over the last couple of weeks, most of their fans expected change to be afoot.

However, that was far from the case. Aston Villa also failed to impress with Unai Emery's men getting beaten 4-0 by Brighton.

Hardly any of the Villans' first-team squad put in a respectable performance but, Joao Gomes was particularly poor.

The Brazilian was signed by Emery from Wolves. At one point, the midfielder had some of the biggest clubs in the world vying for his transfer, including Liverpool.

However, after his showing on Sunday, it definitely feels like Liverpool dodged a massive bullet by not signing him, despite how desperately they need a central midfielder.

Joao Gomes' performance for Aston Villa vs Brighton in numbers

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No matter how desperately Liverpool need new midfielders, they'll be thankful that Hughes missed out on Gomes.

The Brazilian cost Emery around £38 million including add-ons which, at the time, felt like a steal.

However, as per Sofascore, it's now clear why Wolves performed so badly last term.

Gomes only played 40 minutes for Villa on 23 August as, by then, he'd already got himself red-carded.

During his time on the pitch, he failed to have a shot on goal and although he did manage to maintain a 100 per cent pass accuracy, that was the only positive of his game.

Gomes lost possession of the ball twice and only had 25 touches during his time on the pitch.

Defensively, he wasn't that impressive as he only won 60 per cent of his ground duels and zero per cent of his aerial duels.

He was also dribbled past once and made error which led to the Seagulls scoring a goal.

Obviously, his debut was far from ideal and he won't want to replicate that again.

But, for Liverpool, it's arguably one of the best outcomes possible. Fans were fairly upset that they missed out on the 25-year-old but, after this outing, it certainly feels like they've dodged a bullet.