Arne Slot sends Liverpool transfer budget message as FSG model pays off

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Key FSG and Liverpool FC figures including John Henry, Billy Hogan and Arne Slot pose for a photo with the Premier League trophy.

(Image: Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

Arne Slot says the success enjoyed by Liverpool last season is what has allowed them to spend at historic levels during a summer transfer window that saw them break the British record twice for Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak.

The Reds spent around £445m on eight new players, inclusive of add-ons, during the trading months.

Liverpool added Jeremie Frimpong (£29m), Milos Kerkez (£40m), Giorgi Mamardashvili (£29m), Hugo Ekitike (£79m), Giovanni Leoni (£26m) and Armin Pecsi (£1.5m) to their ranks alongside Wirtz, who arrived from Bayer Leverkusen in June for a fee worth up to £116m and Isak, who broke the record on transfer deadline day when he joined from Newcastle United for £125m.

Experienced goalkeeper Freddie Woodman also signed from Preston North End as a free agent to provide cover.

Woodman, who turned 28 in March aside, the age range of the players brought in by Slot and sporting director Richard Hughes are between 20-25, meaning the group has been pieced together to compete not just for this term, but for the years ahead and the Reds' head coach thinks such a strategy is down to the model imposed by owners Fenway Sports Group.

READ MORE:Alexander Isak given Liverpool transfer warning from Arne Slot amid Newcastle criticismREAD MORE:Arne Slot speaks out on Marc Guehi transfer after Liverpool disappointment

And Liverpool boss Slot also paid tribute to his recruitment department and FSG for all their work in retooling a squad that is expected to now seriously challenge for both the Premier League and the Champions League this term.

"I think this is the model we use at this club," Slot said.

"That the ownership uses at this club and we have to give them, not only them but Richard, Michael, all the ones that were involved in this window such a compliment because we have traded so many players.

"We have created our own budget by selling players, by winning the league and as a result of that we have brought in so many players that are younger than the ones we sold so we are maybe even future proofed and still everybody is talking about only the ones we brought in so that is biggest compliment you can get.

"You trade so much and if you only have a net spend over two years of somewhere between £125 and £150m and won the league in the meantime, so that generates a lot of money and have to – help me with the word but 'replace' a player that passed away.

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"So if you take all these things into account, I think it has been an example for so many clubs how the model at this club is with talented and already very good players being brought in and generating your own money by trading, by selling players and winning the league."

The champions return to action on Sunday when they are entertained by promoted Burnley.