West Ham will appreciate exactly what Arne Slot is cooking up at Liverpool with his summer transfer business and it does not bode well for everyone else.
When Tim Steidten was brought in by West Ham as the club’s technical director he was being heavily linked with Liverpool too.
One look at Steidten’s body of work at Bayer Leverkusen and it was easy to see why.
The promise of more autonomy and time to build the club up in his own image saw the Hammers beat Liverpool to Steidten.
The German stated he saw West Ham as a five-year project.
Hammers fans were hugely excited as Steidten started building given some of the brilliant acquisitions he had made during his time on recruitment at Bayer Leverkusen.
Alongside Simon Rolfe, Steidten had the foresight to appoint ex Liverpool hero Xabi Alonso.
West Ham understand Liverpool’s thinking more than most
He also played a big part in the signings of both Jeremie Frimpong and Florian Wirtz.
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The Reds have paid Liverpool £29.5m to sign Frimpong from Leverkusen.
That’s nearly a three-fold profit on the £11m Steidten paid Celtic for the swashbuckling right-back six years ago.
Next in Liverpool’s sights is Frimpong’s former Bayer Leverkusen teammate Florian Wirtz.
Steidten was involved in luring Wirtz to Leverkusen from Koln as a 17-year-old. The move was controversial, as Koln felt that Leverkusen had violated a gentleman’s agreement between the two clubs in signing Wirtz.
Now as Steidten searches for a new job five months after being sacked by West Ham, his old club is looking to make a staggering pure £126m profit on the mercurial playmaker.
Photo by Jan Fromme - firo sportphoto/Getty Images
Photo by Jan Fromme – firo sportphoto/Getty Images
For that kind of gargantuan fee, Liverpool and the Premier League will expect a game-changing superstar of the highest order.
The diminutive and skilful Germany international is definitely that.
But Liverpool are getting a true difference maker – and it’s not Wirtz, just ask West Ham.
The Hammers know all about Leverkusen, perhaps more than most.
West Ham fans endlessly pored over Leverkusen’s squad and transfer dealings when Steidten arrived in east London.
Supporters were excited about what players Steidten might look to bring over.
There was even talk – which seems fanciful now – that Alonso could be a target to replace David Moyes.
Liverpool getting true difference maker just ask West Ham
That was before he put Leverkusen on the map with his unbeaten title and cup double.
Leverkusen also went close in the Europa League that season but lost in the final to Atalanta.
To get there, they had to make it past West Ham in the quarter-finals.
Alonso’s side won the first leg in Germany 2-0 with Wirtz man of the match.
The tie looked doomed for the Hammers.
But West Ham had gone into the Europa League off the back of having won the Conference League the summer prior and making the Europa League semi-finals the season before that.
At home in Europe, West Ham took some beating.
And if Leverkusen thought the tie was over – which Alonso’s team selection for the game suggested he did – they soon got a rude awakening.
Photo by BEN STANSALL/AFP via Getty Images
Photo by BEN STANSALL/AFP via Getty Images
West Ham have been terrible for the last 18 months, winning just 15 of their last 57 Premier League matches.
But that night against Leverkusen at the London Stadium is still regarded as the best the team has played since a dramatic downturn in West Ham’s fortunes starting in January 2024.
Jarrod Bowen set up Michail Antonio to give West Ham a 13th-minute lead and get the tie back to 2-1 on aggregate.
West Ham had a host of chances to level things up and Leverkusen did not know what had hit them.
Alonso was forced to sub off centre-back Odilon Kossounou after just 29 minutes as he was run ragged by the Hammers and was twice close to being sent off for a second yellow card.
West Ham completely dominated Wirtz, rendering him anonymous as he recorded one of his lowest match ratings of that remarkable season and was subbed off.
It was then that West Ham witnessed first hand the difference-maker Liverpool have just signed.
With his team struggling and the game very much in the balance, Alonso brought on Frimpong at half-time.
The Dutchman was one of the players Hammers fans had hoped might follow Steidten to east London when he first arrived.
He arrived at the London Stadium that night alright.
Liverpool new boy Frimpong stole show vs West Ham – not Wirtz
Frimpong was head and shoulders the best player on the pitch for Leverkusen in that second half.
He single-handedly forced West Ham to sit back with his pace and relentless energy, running and wild abandon that would have been a pleasure to watch if it wasn’t the reason the Hammers were about to exit Europe.
With West Ham pushing for an equaliser it was Frimpong who took the game by the scruff of the neck – from right-back – rampaging forward and scoring the killer goal which ended the tie.
West Ham fans know a player when they see one.
And while Wirtz was clearly top drawer, it was Frimpong who impressed the Hammers most in that sliding doors tie.
Frimpong’s arrival at Liverpool has been somewhat overshadowed by media obsession with Trent Alexander-Arnold’s move to Real Madrid.
But the Spanish giants may soon come to realise Frimpong was the man they should have signed.
And West Ham can vouch for that.
Liverpool have a special talent who is about to take the Premier League by storm, whether Wirtz joins him at Anfield or not.