Trey Nyoni is not the only Liverpool name being measured this summer, but Curtis Jones carries the sharper question. Sports Illustrated placed him among eight Liverpool players who need to impress in preseason, and the transfer window has kept Inter Milan in the picture.
Jones is 25 years old, still a Liverpool academy graduate, and still looking to push past the level he has already shown. He missed the World Cup, which makes this preseason more than a fitness exercise: it is the clearest stage he has to alter his place before the window shuts.
Inter Milan and Jones
Last January, rumors linked Jones with Inter Milan, and they resurfaced this summer. That timing is the point. A player can drift into a speculative column in winter and then get pulled back into it when preseason begins, because every training session becomes part of the evidence base for a manager deciding who fits the 2025–26 campaign.
Andoni Iraola did not sound indifferent about him. “I rate Curtis very highly,” he said. “For me he is a great, great player, and I hope he can continue with us and continue performing the way he has been performing.” That is praise, but it is also a standard: Jones is being asked to turn admiration into selection security.
Eight Liverpool players
Eight Liverpool players were singled out for preseason pressure, which tells you the squad is still being sorted rather than settled. Jones is one of the names in that group, and he is the one with the clearest transfer noise attached to him. If he looks sharp, the club may be unlikely to let him leave; if he does not, the Inter Milan links can harden into a genuine exit route.
Arne Slot’s exit and Iraola’s arrival in June changed the frame around Jones without changing the basic problem. He is an academy graduate trying to convince a new coach that his summer work deserves a place in the 2026–27 campaign, and that is a harder task than simply surviving a preseason schedule. For Jones, the clean read is this: impress now, or let the transfer window decide the rest.
