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Arne Slot during a pre match interview during the MEIJI YASUDA J.LEAGUE World Challenge 2025 presented by The Nippon Foundation match between Yokohama F•Marinos and Liverpool at Nissan Stadium on July 30, 2025(Image: Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

For a club who prefer evolution over revolution during the player trading months, it's been quite the dizzying level of turnover this summer at Liverpool.

Seven new arrivals might be somewhat skewed by three of them being goalkeepers who will all remain behind Alisson Becker in the pecking order in Giorgi Mamardashvili, Armin Pecsi and Freddie Woodman, but the fact remains that with a month of the window still to go, the Reds have already made this the most expensive outlay in their history.

After Jeremie Frimpong's £29.5m release clause was triggered at Bayer Leverkusen in May, the Premier League champions fended off interest from Manchester City and Bayern Munich to land one of the most coveted young players on the continent in Florian Wirtz, to the tune of a club-record £116m.



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Long-standing interest in Milos Kerkez eventually saw the Bournemouth left-back join for £40m while Mamardashvili's capture, which was agreed last summer with Valencia at £29m, saw him arrive at the start of July.

France Under-21 striker Hugo Ekitike, a £79m addition from Eintracht Frankfurt, is, at the time of writing on the club's pre-season tour of Hong Kong and Japan, the most recent signing as players continue to be linked.

If an outlay of close to £300m seems very un-Liverpool this summer, for Arne Slot, there is a well-worn Anfield strategy that is allowing this apparent break in tradition.

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"You know better than me, but as well as it being historic in terms of a spending summer, is it also in terms of bringing money in?" asks Slot in a post-match chat after Wednesday's 3-1 win over Yokohama F Marinos.

"Did Liverpool in the past five or six years ever sell players like Jarell Quansah, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Caoimhin Kelleher and Luis Diaz?

Take out the numbers reserved for add-ons for their summer signings and that total shrinks to £87.5m.

That may not be the figure rivals are training their immediate gaze on, but away from the deafening noise about Liverpool's free-wheeling and care-free summer, it is very much the same model holding things in place for the champions, even if their ambitious undertaking is proof of a determination to stay on top of the English game for the years to come.

"The majority of the team has stayed the same," Slot says.

These players have to make a step up again as well because our competition are not standing still."

One of those new arrivals is exciting attacking midfielder Wirtz, who the Reds managed to convince that his future lies away from Germany in May, despite a typically coordinated charm offensive from Bundesliga behemoths Bayern Munich.

It was said that a hugely enticing and tactically detailed pitch from Slot convinced the German player of the year to move away from his homeland and the Reds boss says the ability to attract players of such calibre speaks volumes about where Liverpool find themselves at this stage.

Slot says: "The way we do that is we don't just think 'let's bring a midfielder in'.

Only seven transfers in football history, in fact, have been more than the transfer fee for the former Porto man.

Slot says: "Luis is a player we won the league with and there's a reason why we won it with him because he's a very good player.

The Sweden international striker has communicated his desire to leave Newcastle United and did not fly out for their own pre-season tour of the Far East after citing a thigh injury.

Asked how he goes about sourcing a replacement for Diaz, Slot says: "I think if players leave, whether that's Trent or Lucho then you always need to replace them with quality.

"Sometimes quality can be in different positions.

The 16-year-old has enjoyed an excellent summer schedule so far and scored an eye-catching strike in the 3-1 win in Yokohama late on, after dazzling with his dribbling and footwork throughout the second period.

"We've only played two games over here and we haven't played against Premier League opponents yet," Slot says, in an effort to dampen the hype and expectation around his young winger at this stage of his fledgling career.

"But I see him train, I see him play, and the impact he has when he trains and plays is really promising.
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