This week's Blood Red column on why Liverpool may be forced into another major summer in the transfer window
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Arne Slot (head coach) and Richard Hughes (sporting director) could face another big summer at Liverpool
Arne Slot (head coach) and Richard Hughes (sporting director) could face another big summer at Liverpool (Image: Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
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Liverpool's plan was to restock and replenish with the biggest summer in their history last year. In between breaking their transfer record twice for the £116m Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak at £125m, the Reds also forked out £79m for Hugo Ekitike, £40m for Milos Kerkez and £29m to trigger Jeremie Frimpong's Bayer Leverkusen release clause.
Add in the £29m agreement with Valencia to bring in goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili and the £26m deal to sign Giovanni Leoni from Parma and it was clear that Slot and sporting director Richard Hughes were planning for the long term as champions of England.
The failure to land £35m March Guehi on September 1, transfer deadline day, meant the spending stopped short of £450m, with outgoings of around half of that redressing the balance considerably.
Slot spoke candidly on Friday of his frustration that the outgoings were rarely factored in when critiquing the performance and results of his Liverpool team during what remains a difficult second season for the Dutchman.
And while there is some merit in accepting that a boat-load of talent left the club last summer, particularly Luis Diaz and Trent Alexander-Arnold, it's difficult for explanations or excuses to be nodded along with readily when so much money has been handed over for new recruits.
To talk negatively about Liverpool's summer business is to do so with the benefit of hindsight. This column, in particular, was booming loud about what appeared to be at the time a sensational period of player trading at Anfield.
And in the fullness of time, sporting director Hughes, Fenway Sports Group's 'CEO of football' Michael Edwards and everyone else involved in the recruitment department may well be able to pat each other on the back.
It's no coincidence, in fact, that some of the better performers in recent weeks - Frimpong, Kerkez and Wirtz - were all signed in the summer. They have improved as the season has gone on, while 13-goal top scorer Ekitike is challenged only by Dominik Szoboszlai as the club's player of the season so far.
As Slot told reporters on Friday, there is "more to come" from the new recruits and that applies perhaps more than anyone to Isak, the most expensive signing in British football history, whose recuperation from a leg break goes on.
But what might jar at Anfield is that despite spending a king's ransom to refine a title-winning squad further, Liverpool have regressed and far too many areas of the squad look short at this stage of the campaign considering the money that was paid.
Andy Robertson's flirtations with Tottenham Hotspur could see him walk away as a free agent in the summer, meaning a new recruit at left-back will surely be needed. Ibrahima Konate is in the final months of his deal as well, with the only resolution on the horizon being that he too departs as a free agent.
Joe Gomez almost left after 10 years of service on transfer deadline day and the long-serving Londoner will surely have more interested parties at the table later this year.
Then there is the great unknown over Mohamed Salah and how much appetite there is from both the club and the player and his representatives over continuing their relationship.
The Egypt superstar will be 34 in June and inside the final year of the two-year extension he penned in April. Speculation from Saudi Arabia is almost omnipresent when Salah is discussed and it is anyone's guess at this stage what way that develops.
Fringe players like Wataru Endo and Federico Chiesa may also contemplate their own respective futures due to the limited game time under Slot and while the summer transfer window still remains some way off, it feels like Liverpool are quietly heading towards another major few months of renovation on their squad.
It's why a season without Champions League football is unthinkable. Miss out on that and the parameters of what is possible, both financially and sporting wise, will have to be rescaled inwards.
The Reds looked to set themselves up for the long term last summer but it might only have been part one of the grand plan.