Liverpool need big summer to find Mohamed Salah successor but first blunder has already been made
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The second part of John Aldridge's Liverpool ECHO column assesses what the Reds have to do to find a Mohamed Salah successorIf Liverpool are going to properly replace Mohamed Salah, then the chequebook will have to come out this summer.Steven Gerrard said last week that to succeed one of the greatest players of his generation, you need to look at a marquee name, and he is right: Liverpool need to go big this coming transfer window.That will mean Champions League qualification but looking at the net spend from last summer and it wasn't quite the extraordinary summer window as many would have you believe.Arne Slot has always professed that the club brought in £300m after spending £440m and the truth is about half of what was spent on the likes of Florian Wirtz, Alexander Isak and co was recouped in player sales.FOLLOW OUR LIVERPOOL FC FACEBOOK PAGE! All the latest news and analysis from Anfield on the Liverpool Echo's dedicated LFC Facebook pageAnd hey, don't forget Liverpool also lost some superb players last summer.
He's been one of the outstanding performers at Bayern Munich since he moved on and he has been missed.It goes under the radar but Arsenal outspent Liverpool net-wise last summer, so the ability to spend again has to be there for the Reds and it looks like they will need to do just that once more.We know there will be some big names leaving to free up the wage bill. All of that needs reinvesting because Salah isn't the only one who needs replacing.For me, looking at Liverpool's squad now, they need a holding midfielder, a right-winger and a centre-back.
They won't want to sell and he would cost an arm and a leg, I'm sure.Where I think Liverpool blundered was not being at the table for Antoine Semenyo when he was due to leave Bournemouth in January.Given Richard Hughes, Liverpool's sporting director, was working at Bournemouth when Semenyo was down south, he will have known all the details regarding that contract, so I was surprised we were not making serious advances there. He is a fantastic winger who can get you 15 goals and assists a season, ideal for what they will be looking for this summer.Liverpool's loss has been Manchester City's gain in that regard and there's a lot of pressure of Hughes and CEO of football Michael Edwards to get this squad rebuilding right now this summer.It's looking like a lot of work needs doing to it and they don't yet know what European competition they are going to be playing in next season.