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Virgil van Dijk of Liverpool reacts during the Liverpool Pre-Season Training at Kai Tak Stadium on July 24, 2025 in Hong Kong, China(Image: Yu Chun Christopher Wong/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images)

When talks were significantly stepped up between Liverpool and Virgil van Dijk over a new contract earlier this year, the Reds captain was promised that a major transfer window was approaching at Anfield.

And having signed a new two-year extension in April, it is fair to say the Premier League champions have kept to their word.

Van Dijk has sat back and watched on in recent weeks while the club's recruitment department have spent the thick end of £300m this summer, with more arrivals planned.

It started with the triggering of Jeremie Frimpong's release clause from Bayer Leverkusen at the beginning of June, with the Netherlands international arriving in a £29.5m deal to effectively take Trent Alexander-Arnold's spot at right-back, even if the versatile Dutchman is not being viewed as a typical like-for-like replacement for the now Real Madrid star.

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That was followed swiftly by the £116m club-record deal for Frimpong's Leverkusen team-mate Florian Wirtz, with the Reds fending off interest from Manchester City, Bayern Munich and belatedly Real Madrid for the Bundesliga player of the season.

The long-standing interest in Milos Kerkez at Bournemouth saw a £40m agreement reached with the Cherries, while Giorgi Mamardashvili's £29m transfer, that was agreed with Valencia last year, was also ratified alongside deals for £1.5m Armin Pecsi and Freddie Woodman, who joins from Preston North End as a free agent to boost the home-grown quota.

The £79m deal with Eintracht Frankfurt for striker Hugo Ekitike saw the France Under-21 international complete a medical in London on Tuesday before he was flown out to Hong Kong to meet his new colleagues at the end of their open-training session at the Kai Tak Stadium on Thursday.

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As show of ambitions go, it's been quite the few weeks for a Liverpool team who already entered the window on the back of a season where they won the title by 10 points, having wrapped it up with four games to spare.

For Van Dijk, the idea that "they're planning to make it a big summer", as he put it in April, has been proven correct.

"Yeah, I don't think it's been a bad transfer window in terms of the additions that we have made and the money we've spent," Van Dijk says, speaking in Hong Kong after Thursday's training session.

"The club is obviously trying to improve our squad.

"The Premier League is incredibly strong so it's only right that we have to improve too.

Adding quality helps to raise the standard in both training and games hopefully.

"We've all seen it over the years, the team which is the most consistent during the season wins titles, and that's the aim we have.

The 22-year-old is the jewel of German football and had been wanted by Bundesliga giants Bayern before the player himself was believed to have been blown away by the level of detail planned for him by Slot.

The Reds will pay an initial £100m for the attacking midfielder, with a further £16m of add-ons and his arrival will offset the creative shortfall of Alexander-Arnold's departure, with Wirtz expected to feature predominantly as something of an archetypal No.10 in the midfield system.

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"When I joined the club I said it, I don't think there's a better place to be than Liverpool," Van Dijk adds.

I said to him: 'Liverpool is the place to be.'"

On Ektike, who may feature on Saturday when AC Milan are met at the Kai Tak Stadium, Van Dijk says: "We just had a very brief chat on the pitch at the end of training.
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