Arne Slot responds to Liverpool spend critics
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Arne Slot has responded to criticism of Liverpool’s summer spending.
Alexander Isak’s deadline day arrival for a British transfer record took the Premier League champions’ outlay to £450 million on eight players.
That figure was offset by the Reds recouping more than £250M in sales with Luis Diaz, Darwin Nunez and Jarell Quansah all sold for eight-figure sums.
It marked a sea change from 12 monthstime, when Federico Chiesa’s £10M move from Juventus marked Anfield’s solitary incoming in the transfer market.
Ahead of their Champions League opener with Atletico Madrid, Slot explained at length how his side was able to spend such eye-watering figures this year.
He said: “There is so much focus on our new signings, especially from pundits that favour some other clubs in the country that cannot stop talking about £450M.
“I repeat, £450M, £450m!
But they forget about (nearly) £300M that we have sold for.
“So, yes, if we want to strengthen the squad we need to spend that much money.
If we sell Dominik Szoboszlai tomorrow he would be worth £100M as well.
“I think it is only a compliment that people tell everyone we have spent so much because that tells you the players we brought in are seen as very good players.
“I think we did great business; we brought in great players and to add to that, we have already lowered the age of the players.
“Some other teams prefer to bring in 27-year-olds because they are ready but we think we have brought in players who are 21, 22 who are ready.
“And then if they are still with you in four or five years, we can sell (someone like) Luis Diaz for £65M.
But it is harder to sell him for £65M if he is already 32.
“That is our model and I think we should get praise.
I think all the money we have spent we generated ourselves by selling and by winning the league after we didn’t buy anyone at all.
“If you win the league that is quite good financially as well.
Those two situations led to the fact that we could spend £450M.
“It’s not like we looked in the ground and saw there was money coming up.
“We have generated ourselves and that is a big compliment for the model we have and for the quality players we have brought in that everybody is only talking about the £450M.”