Arne Slot celebrates with the Premier League trophy. (Photo by PAUL ELLIS/AFP via Getty Images)Arne Slot celebrates with the Premier League trophy. (Photo by PAUL ELLIS/AFP via Getty Images)
Arne Slot celebrates with the Premier League trophy. (Photo by PAUL ELLIS/AFP via Getty Images) | AFP via Getty Images
Liverpool are keen to sign Florian Wirtz in the summer transfer window to help them defend the Premier League title in the 2025-26 season.
Arne Slot has insisted that Liverpool have been looking at their transfer targets ‘for a long time’ with planning for next season afoot.
The Reds lifted the Premier League trophy after the 1-1 draw against Crystal Palace on the final day of the 2024-25 season. Liverpool have had to wait four weeks to get their hands on the silverware, having won the English championship following a 5-1 victory over Tottenham Hotspur on April 27.
But the aim for Slot and his squad will be to defend their crown in the 2025-26 campaign. The Reds are already making moves in the transfer window, with Jeremie Frimpong set to arrive from Bayer Leverkusen to replace the outgoing Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Liverpool are keen to sign another Leverkusen star that is Wirtz. The Reds are considered to be frontrunners for the Germany international, with Bayern Munich president Herbert Heiner admitting that they are behind in the transfer tussle.
During the trophy celebrations, Slot was asked about when his mind will change towards next season - and his thoughts have been on it for some time. The Liverpool head coach, who delivered the title in his maiden campaign, told Sky Sports: “Probably four weeks ago! It never stops. Even during the season you are looking to the next one. The sporting director is more involved in the long term than me but he keeps me involved the whole time, as you can expect. The targets we have now did not come up last week. We've been looking at them for a long time.”
Slot admitted there will not be wholesale changes to the Liverpool squad but fresh faces are set to arrive. He added: "I don't know if it's going to be a lot but we know, the club, Richard [Hughes], the ownership, we are all aligned on what we are trying to achieve. It is already ,very very positive that we kept Mo and Virgil and a few others that we are trying to sign look positive.
"We are very happy with the squad that we have. This club has always shown that if they can strengthen, that's what we do. Big summer or not, it is already big because we won the league.”
Speaking at his pre-match press conference, Slot revealed that he wanted Liverpool to become serial winners, which will require an ‘elite mentality’. The Anfield boss said: “I think we have a lot to compete next season again. But what I don't know yet – and that's going to be the interesting one – is if we have this elite mentality, this serial winner mentality, of showing up season after season after season. And I think I get the answer already on the 8th of July when we come back together to see what shape the players are [in]. Because many teams have won the Premier League once but not many have won them multiple seasons in a row – and that's for a reason.
“First of all, because it's so difficult. Second of all, that not every player has this elite mentality. When I talk about Mo, it's not a coincidence that he's for seven years already on a certain level and in last season he was the one that was the most fittest when we arrived back after the break. That is a mentality you need to have to have a chance of becoming a serial winner. This is something we have to prove and the players have to prove – and me as well – during the off-season. The first day for me to judge if we have a chance to become serial winners is the 8th of July when I see them back.”
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