Arne Slot given 'failure' reality check with Liverpool boss told straight about expectation

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Arne Slot has been warned that he must win the title again this season(Image: 2025 Vince Mignott/MB Media)

Liverpool are hardly resting on their laurels after being crowned Premier League champions, having since smashed the British transfer record not once but twice this summer.

Yet with such expenditure comes huge expectations, and if they aren't met this season, then Reds boss Arne Slot will be branded as a failure, according to Manchester United icon Rio Ferdinand.

Fresh off capturing their 20th top-flight title in May, Liverpool hurriedly began constructing one of the most remarkable transfer windows in Premier League history.



The total still amounted to a Premier League record, as Liverpool's spending in the off-season even eclipses the £434.5m spent by Chelsea in the summer of 2023.

Ferdinand, while mightily impressed with the Reds' dealings, has told Slot that the title and a cup is the bare minimum this year.

"Liverpool have one of the best transfer windows we've, arguably, seen in the Premier League era," the former England centre-back said on his show, Rio Presents.

Alexander Isak signed on deadline day for a British record of £125 million(Image: Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

"They've gone and got the best striker, or the second best striker after [Erling] Haaland, in the Premier League.

They've got Wirtz, the best German player in the Bundesliga, that is a ridiculous window," he added.

"The best in positions in their respective leagues have come into their team to improve the champions.

If they don't win the league and a cup this season it's a failure, trust me."

Ferdinand concluded: "The amount of money they've spent, over £400m they've spent.

In fact, Arteta has a net outlay of £822.75m since being appointed as manager in December 2019.

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Since that time, and under two managers, Liverpool have spent just £454.2m winning two Premier League titles, the FIFA Club World Cup, the FA Cup and two League Cups, not to mention, bagging an appearance in the Champions League final in 2022.

Add all that to the fact that Arteta has won a solitary FA Cup with the Gunners, in 2020, and is now riding a wave of three consecutive second-placed finishes in the Premier League.