Despite winning the Premier League less than one month ago, Liverpool are in the middle of something of a rebuild this summer.
The Reds won the league on the back of barely doing any business at all in 2024, but have quickly moved to get some bodies through the door this year.
The most important of those signings looks set to be Florian Wirtz, who completed a record-breaking move to Anfield on Friday.
While Liverpool fans have been toasting the addition of a genuinely world-class new player, though, not everyone will be quite so cheerful. Here are three winners, and three losers, of the biggest signing in Liverpool history.
Liverpool Unveil New Signing Florian Wirtz
Photo by Liverpool FC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images
Mohamed Salah heads list of the winners
It has been quite some time since Liverpool brought in a ‘finished product’ player who is completely ready to hit the ground running at Anfield. But that is exactly what Wirtz is.
There is an argument that this will benefit the whole Liverpool squad, with top players always enjoying coming across others of a similar level.
But while that may be in part true, there is arguably no Liverpool player who will be as pleased to see Wirtz sign as Mohamed Salah.
Liverpool were far too heavily reliant on Salah for goals last season and although the Egyptian won’t mind that to some degree, you can only imagine how good the link-up could be between Wirtz and the No. 11. Mouth-watering.
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And if Salah is to feel the benefit of having such a brilliantly creative player alongside him, then the main rewards of that will be felt by Arne Slot.
Anything which helps Liverpool win football matches is going to help Slot, and Wirtz is a player who can secure a result all by himself.
Wirtz praised Slot in his first ever interview as a Liverpool player, and the appreciation is clearly very much mutual.
Finally, if players and coaches are to take advantage of Wirtz’s arrival, then the Liverpool fans are the real winners. The German is the kind of attacker who gets supporters on the edge of their seats and isn’t that what we’re all in this for, ultimately?
Harvey Elliott one of several unfortunate losers
Although fans may not always care, necessarily, there are losers as well as winners after every new transfer in football.
In terms of Wirtz, it remains to be seen exactly where he will fit into Slot’s XI, so it is hard to say exactly whose place he will take.
Harvey Elliott of England arrives prior to the UEFA European Under-21 Championship match between England and Slovenia
Photo by Tullio Puglia – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images
However, the 22-year-old is very much an attacking midfielder, and while he will bump someone from the first XI, he will also relegate those further down the pecking order to even less of a role.
Unfortunately, the biggest loser in this regard is likely to be Harvey Elliott, who now looks virtually certain to leave Liverpool. The Reds are reportedly valuing Elliott at around £45m and if someone comes in with a good offer, they surely won’t turn it down.
Elliott is a boyhood Liverpool supporter who has always dreamed of succeeding at Anfield. And although he has inarguably done that, Wirtz’s arrival feels like the end of the road for him.
It could also impact heavily on Dominik Szoboszlai, who is the most likely to lose his place in the starting XI. Szoboszlai may not mind the move into a deeper midfield role so much, but it will surely impact on his playing time regardless.
Finally, the real losers here have got to be the rest of the Premier League and, indeed, Liverpool’s title rivals. After losing to the Reds comfortably last season, there will have been a few groans from the likes of Arsenal and Manchester City after Wirtz was announced on Friday.