Having won the Premier League title by 10 points and with four games to spare, Liverpool has had longer than any of its competitors to prepare for the new season.
In a week's time, Arne Slot and his players will return for pre-season training, as refreshed as possible. They were not involved in the Club World Cup and had a bit of extra time at the end of the last campaign to rest, given there was nothing riding on the fixtures remaining post-Spurs.
As a result, there has been no better time than this to press ahead and get to the next level. Slot already has one title under his belt, but the project now looks set to be accelerated.
That is the exact kind of behaviour that Liverpool needed to show after re-establishing itself as a major player at the top of the table. It has always been a big club, but it is acting in the same way that, say, Real Madrid might.
Slot looks to have been ruthless with young players who are talented but not quite ready yet to be world-class every week, but also has a buy-back clause for Jarell Quansah. Being prepared to break the British transfer record is not new — Liverpool could have done it with Moises Caicedo — but the Reds have now done it with Florian Wirtz.
The last time Liverpool won the title, back in 2020, the Reds signed Thiago Alcantara, Diogo Jota and Kostas Tsimikas in the summer that followed, but left themselves short of options at the back, needing to dip into the January market for emergency center-back options mid-season.
Arne Slot, head coach of Liverpool celebrates as the team bus passes through fans in celebration during the Liverpool Trophy Parade on May 26, 2025 in Liverpool, England.
Liverpool head coach Arne Slot. (Image: Nikki Dyer - LFC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
There has been no such repeat this time, seemingly, though there is still work to be done. Quansah, for instance, is heading to Bayer Leverkusen, and Liverpool will need a replacement to avoid taking a similar gamble to five years ago.
In Wirtz, Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong, however, plus the talented Hungarian goalkeeper Armin Pecsi, it has been quite the start to the window — and a substantial statement of intent.
Liverpool will head into the 2025/26 season as the favorite to win the Premier League again. Alongside PSG and Real Madrid, it will also be near the top of the list when it comes to the Champions League too. And it certainly feels like the pieces are being put in place for a period of sustained dominance.
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"I think [Wirtz] can help Liverpool start a dynasty in England the same way United did in the 1990s and 2000s, and the same way Manchester City did over the last decade or so," former Manchester United striker Teddy Sheringham said this week.
Liverpool was already the best team in the country, but its moves so far this summer have only heightened that fact, even if becoming the dominant force will be hard with so much competition.
At the end of the season, with the Premier League title long wrapped up, Gary Neville insisted that while Liverpool was the more successful club, Manchester United is the bigger club.
"You're 16th in the league," Jamie Carragher said in reponse. "You say it that much that you're the biggest club in the world [that you] actually believe it."
Wherever the truth really lies — and neither side is going to back down — the reality is clear. Only one club is acting like the biggest in the world at the moment, and it is Liverpool.