Inside Liverpool’s head-turning transfer window

Slot’s confidence in his ability to coax improvement out of the players already in place meant hastily piecing together a transfer strategy made no sense. Federico Chiesa was the only permanent signing at £10million from Juventus after a deal for Real Sociedad’s Martín Zubimendi collapsed.

It was a plan designed with the intention of not making unnecessary mistakes. Instead, Liverpool “saved their pocket money”, according to one source, for something they really wanted.

Well Wirtz the wait

First up, that one they really wanted was Bayer Leverkusen’s Wirtz.

The attacking midfielder had become a target even before the German team arrived at Anfield last November for a Champions League tie. Even allowing for Xabi Alonso’s association with the club he once represented, it is not a coincidence that his visiting squad was invited to train at Liverpool’s AXA training complex the day after they lost 4-0.

That was all about fostering good relations, especially with another Leverkusen player, Jeremie Frimpong, also primed to make the move to Merseyside.

Real Madrid were interested in Wirtz and were in the process of luring Alonso back to the Bernabéu as their new head coach, but, ultimately, they had different priorities when the transfer window opened.

Bayern Munich and Manchester City did not. At different times during the chase they would have seen themselves as favourites to land the 22-year-old Germany international.

Yet the vision that Slot and Hughes outlined to Wirtz, coupled with the player’s determination to experience a new challenge, meant it was Liverpool who made the crucial breakthrough just before the end of last season. While Rayan Cherki, now at City, had been considered during his time at Lyon, Wirtz was always the first choice.

He was signed to be a different type of No10 to Dominik Szoboszlai, who can also play as a No8 and, in recent weeks, at right back. While there is an acceptance that Wirtz is adapting to a new league and a different team set-up, the belief that he possesses in his ability to unlock opposing defences remains unwavering.

His guaranteed fee was £100million, and add-ons of up to £16million will only be triggered should Liverpool savour success four times in either the Premier League or Champions League.

Importantly, Hughes also negotiated five equal payments to be made to Leverkusen to cover the initial outlay, which eases the strain on finances.

Doing their homework on Ekitike

Before settling on Slot, Liverpool studied numerous managers when seeking a replacement for Jürgen Klopp. In the course of that, many players also caught the eye.

The arrival of Ekitike for £69million rising to £79million was also months in the planning, and arguably less complicated.

It is now understood that the death of Diogo Jota in a car crash alongside his brother André Silva in July did not affect Liverpool’s desire to bring in two new forwards. That was always the intent.

Ekitike is viewed as a multi-functional attacker, having played off Omar Marmoush, now of Manchester City, at Eintracht Frankfurt in the first half of last season. Utilising him in that role is one of the many permutations now at Slot’s disposal, with Ekitike having so far lined up as a No9 before the arrival of Isak.

Liverpool were always the player’s first choice — since contact with his camp was established in January — and Manchester United his second. This was despite the well-documented interest from Newcastle United, who had already suffered rejection from Liam Delap and João Pedro, who both joined Chelsea.

The 23-year-old Ekitike has started the season impressively, with three goals in his first four games, demonstrating his rich potential.

The football industry knew Isak was unsettled

The pitting of Liverpool and Newcastle as transfer protagonists would be best encompassed in the saga over Isak, which continued through to deadline day when a £125million British-record transfer was finally confirmed.

A month had passed between Liverpool’s first bid of £110million being rejected and the forward’s agent, Vlado Lemic, receiving indications that the departure of his client was now possible over the weekend before the cut-off at 7pm on September 1.

Despite the noise that the Sweden international would not be allowed to leave, there were figures at Liverpool who always remained confident a deal could be brokered for a player who had gone on strike to try to force his exit.

Within football, the sense that Isak was unsettled was an open secret. Chelsea had targeted the 25-year-old in the summer of 2024, and there were more enquiries from clubs during the January window that followed.

Newcastle, operating without a sporting director, handled that situation as they saw fit. What is clear is that had they not decided to sell, Liverpool would have gone with the forward options Slot already possessed. One of the recruitment team’s strengths is not simply bouncing on to an alternative, as proved the case with Zubimendi, now of Arsenal.

Isak said after appearing as a substitute in Sweden’s World Cup qualifying defeat by Kosovo on Monday, his first match minutes since May 25, that “not everyone has the full picture” over a departure that turned a hero into a pariah.

Eddie Howe’s side received a record sum for a player who made it clear he no longer wanted to be at St James’ Park. The Isak fee will be paid in instalments over four years, meaning the total committed to him and Wirtz this summer is £51.25million.

Smart signings… and smart sales

In other deals this summer, the £40million left back Milos Kerkez arrived from Bournemouth to challenge Andrew Robertson, and Giovanni Leoni was recruited from Parma for £26million to end Liverpool’s search for a young centre back — they had previously targeted Levi Colwill, Leny Yoro and Dean Huijsen over consecutive summers. That also softened the blow of the collapse of Marc Guéhi’s proposed £35million move from Crystal Palace on deadline day.

Frimpong, who cost £29.5million, is viewed as much as a right winger as a right back and will be an important option when Mohamed Salah is at the Africa Cup of Nations with Egypt between December and January.

Giorgi Mamardashvili checked in from Valencia, having remained at the La Liga club on loan for 12 months in a move agreed last summer that highlighted Liverpool’s opportunism in the market. The Spaniards’ financial issues meant a £29million deal for the Georgia goalkeeper was deemed smart business, with Lille’s Lucas Chevalier (who has just moved to Paris Saint-Germain for a potential £48million) and Porto’s Diogo Costa alternatives considered.

Internally, Liverpool do not view their business as a departure from FSG’s usual approach. Two summers of sales since the trio of Edwards, Hughes and Slot came together have helped to offset ambitious spending on some of the most sought after players in Europe. This window alone brought in about £262million, via the sales of players including Luis Díaz, Darwin Núñez and Jarell Quansah. The net spend since the summer of 2024 is £137million.

The £65million sale of Díaz to Bayern Munich contributed to that and came 12 months after he had been unsettled by interest from Manchester City, something Liverpool countered by expressing a liking for Julián Alvarez. Nothing materialised then.

If balancing the books sounds familiar, then it should. Exits allowed the club to pay what was at the time a world-record fee for a defender when signing Virgil van Dijk in January 2018 for £75million from Southampton and another record price, for a goalkeeper, with the £65million capture of Alisson from Roma six months later.

Football inflation modelling allows Liverpool to track transfer fees and establish comparative and contextual valuations in the market. That indicates Van Dijk would now cost £120million and Alisson £110million, which is in line with the Wirtz and Isak transfers.

The search for a ‘sister’ club

The expectation is that future windows will not be as busy, but the work continues.

The contracts of Slot, Hughes and Edwards all have two years left to run and will need to be addressed at some point in the coming months.

Then there is the purchase of a second, “sister” club which was so crucial to Edwards being enticed back. That is very much in the hands of FSG’s Boston-based executives with due diligence having been completed on about 25 different clubs, including the La Liga side Getafe.

FSG must decide whether to proceed with buying another club, something which is viewed as crucial in, for example, providing a pathway for young foreign talent blocked from moving to Anfield because of post-Brexit rules.

The quest to keep Liverpool at the top never stops.

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