Arne Slot says Liverpool will need to raise funds through sales before making new signings this summer.
The club spent a record £446.5m last summer but a difficult season has underlined the need to continue the rebuild, with Mohamed Salah and Andrew Robertson set to leave on free transfers and Hugo Ekitike feared to have suffered a serious injury.
Slot noted Liverpool funded last summer’s spending by selling a string of players, naming Darwin Nunez, Luis Diaz, Jarell Quansah, Caoimhin Kelleher, Ben Gannon Doak and Tyler Morton. With many of last summer’s recruits, including Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz, struggling for form and fitness, Slot said further sales will likely be needed to fund any new additions.
“We are losing Mo and Andy Robertson on a free transfer, as we lost Trent on a free transfer, and this model of the club means that we have to sell, usually, to buy,” he told Amazon Prime after the Champions League exit against Paris Saint-Germain. “It’s a big challenge. It was already last season and it’s going to be a challenge in the summer again. But this club has also shown many times that this model works and we can be very successful.
“We have signed very good and talented players. Let’s hope they are all fit, and most of them go into their second season in the Premier League. As I said many times, the future looks very good, especially if we can add a few good signings after good players leave this summer.”
Ibrahima Konaté is among the players whose future appears uncertain, with the defender yet to agree a contract extension and Liverpool under pressure to sell before his deal expires next year.
Will Slot still be in place?
Slot’s comments come amid uncertainty over his own future. The Dutchman, who guided Liverpool to last season’s Premier League title, has a year remaining on his contract, but Jamie Carragher has warned that failing to secure a Champions League place could put his position in jeopardy.
Liverpool currently sit in a Champions League qualifying spot in fifth, four points clear of Chelsea, but face Everton in Sunday’s Merseyside derby, live on Sky Sports, having won only one of their last four Premier League matches.
“If you don’t qualify for the Champions League, having won the league the season before and spent as much as Liverpool, I don’t think you’ve got a leg to stand on,” Carragher said on Monday Night Football in February. He added that three big issues stand out in the Premier League now — set-pieces, counter-attacking football and low blocks — and that Liverpool have struggled to cope with them.
Those problems have resurfaced recently, with defeats to Wolves and Brighton either side of a draw with Spurs before Saturday’s win over Fulham.
“Once you start fearing Champions League qualification for next season, that’s when I think we’ve got a completely different proposition when we’re talking about the manager’s job,” Carragher said. “If we’re talking about not winning the league or challenging for the league, that is a collective responsibility, and Liverpool don’t win the league every year.
“Not making the Champions League from [being] champions, spending £450m and having the highest wage bill in the Premier League, which is normally the biggest determining factor over where you finish in the league, I think you’ve got serious questions to ask.”
Watch Everton vs Liverpool live on Sky Sports Premier League and Sky Sports Main Event on Sunday; kick-off 2pm