The Crystal Palace manager has given his verdict on Liverpool’s summer transfer window so far.
Crystal Palace boss Oliver Glasner has admitted he has been surprised by how busy Liverpool’s summer recruitment drive has been.
But Liverpool have been doing their utmost to ensure that they can defend their crown in the 2025-26 campaign. They smashed their club transfer record to sign Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen for £100 million. In addition, Hugo Ekitike, Jeremie Frimpong, Milos Kerkez and Giorgi Mamardashvili have arrived for a combined fee of around £170 million.
However, Liverpool are not yet finished. They are keen to sign Alexander Isak from Newcastle United, which would be for a British transfer record. The Magpies have already rebuffed a £110 million bid. Slot’s side also require a centre-back after the exit of Jarell Quansah, with Palace’s Marc Guehi on their shopping list.
FA Cup holders Palace face Liverpool in the Community Shield at Wembley on Sunday. And Glasner believes that the Reds will not only be challenging for the Premier League title in the upcoming season, but that they clearly are showing ambitions of want to be claim the Champions League.
What’s been said
Speaking toSky Sports Austria (via Sport Witness), Glasner said: “Liverpool have obviously invested heavily this year with Florian Wirz, Hugo Ekitike, Frimpong and Kerkez. I don’t know if they’ll bring in Isak now too,” he said.
“They’ve been playing at this level for years, so I have to say I was a bit surprised that they were so active, but of course it also shows their ambitions.
“I think you can always clearly see a club’s ambitions in the transfer market. And it seems that Liverpool FC isn’t satisfied with just winning the English league; I think they want to win the Champions League. And they obviously saw that we needed to add one or two things to the squad, and they made that very clear and explicit early on this summer.”
Title race prediction
Glasner believes that Liverpool will have a battle on their hands to defend the Premier League, however. Last season’s runners-up Arsenal, Manchester City and Chelsea - who claimed the Club World Cup earlier this summer - will all be challenging.
Glasner added: “The usual suspects: yes, of course, Liverpool will have a say again, City will have a say, Arsenal, who are also, well, it seems like this year the top World Cups have come together.
“Four or five clubs have invested heavily again. If I take City, over €300 million in 2025, Liverpool similarly, I think Arsenal not far behind, Chelsea exactly the same, so you can see that they want to win the Premier League, they want to win the Champions League.
“And these teams, yes, Tottenham also has a very good team and has also got a great coach here now. They obviously had a great coach who won the Europa League, but I do think that one of Liverpool, City, Arsenal, or Chelsea will then win the title. Man United has also clearly shown their ambitions. But I think, based on the last one or two years, it’s so easy here, not to catch up in one year, but maybe in two or three.”
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