Arne Slot had the perfect response to blinkered critics of Liverpool’s summer spending | OneFootball

Liverpool have ruffled quite a few feathers among supporters of rival clubs with their freewheeling transfer window this summer, but Arne Slot had the perfect response to critics of the Reds’ unprecedented spending.

Since the beginning of June, the Premier League champions have invested almost £300m (if all add-ons are triggered) in seven new signings, with around two-thirds of that spent on Florian Wirtz and Hugo Ekitike, and roughly £70m on full-backs Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez.

That expenditure could shoot up even further if LFC break the British transfer record to bring in Alexander Isak, with Keith Downie indicating that Newcastle could be convinced to cash in for around £135m.

However, as Slot rightly pointed out when speaking to the media after Liverpool’s win over Yokohama F. Marinos on Wednesday, the Reds have also recouped a significant amount of cash in player sales since the end of last season.

Slot makes brilliant point to Liverpool’s critics

The Dutchman said (via The Athletic): “You know better than me, but as well as being historic in terms of a spending summer, is it also in terms of bringing money in?

“Did Liverpool in the past five or six years ever sell players like Jarell Quansah, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Caoimhin Kelleher, and Luis Diaz? Who knows what else is going to happen? You have to look at it both ways.

“I think this club has always worked like this. We do spend, but if we spend, then we always need to recoup some money. It’s what we already started last summer when we only brought in Federico Chiesa, but we sold three or four players, which meant a big profit. If you balance things out, we’ve spent, for sure, but we’ve also recouped money.”

(Photo by Kenta Harada/Getty Images)

Liverpool aren’t spending beyond their means this summer

There you have it – a cogent and factually correct response from Slot to critics of Liverpool’s summer spending, although some of the Reds’ detractors are so blinkered that they either can’t or won’t see it that way.

The Athletic‘s James Pearce backed up the head coach’s comments with his subsequent verdict, in which he highlighted that LFC are set to recoup just shy of £130m from selling Trent Alexander-Arnold, Caoimhin Kelleher, Jarell Quansah, Nat Phillips and Luis Diaz.

It’s already been the most money generated by the club from player sales in a single transfer window in seven-and-a-half years, and that’s before the possibility of further exits, with Federico Chiesa and Tyler Morton among those who could depart.

(Photo by Sebastian Widmann/Getty Images)

Slot was also right to reference last summer, in which Liverpool’s net spend was -£52m (that’s not a typo, they turned a net profit of £52m in the market), with the Italy international their only addition to the squad at a an initial £10m.

For further proof that the Reds are quite entitled to spend what they have done this summer, The Athletic‘s Chris Weatherspoon conducted a thorough analysis which vindicates FSG’s drastic releasing of the handbrake.

He pointed out that the Merseysiders’ strong PSR position allows for them to incur a loss in the 2024/25 accounting period, and that they had the lowest transfer debt of the so-called ‘big six’ clubs, while also banking extra income to cover their increased costs.

Opposition fans mightn’t like it, but the truth is that Liverpool’s owners have run the club sustainably (often to the annoyance of Kopites wishing they’d been more enterprising in recent years), with Slot now reaping the rewards of that previously measured approach as he’s granted a significant squad overhaul…and it mightn’t be finished yet!