Arne Slot shares Liverpool transfer update as Florian Wirtz talks continue - 'Smart to do'

Arne Slot

Arne Slot has admitted he would ideally prefer Liverpool to strengthen their squad ‘as soon as they can’ after winning the Premier League title.

The Reds are in talks to sign Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen in a potential club-record deal, while Jeremie Frimpong has already undergone a medical after agreeing to move to Anfield from the Bundesliga outfit.

Meanwhile, Liverpool agreed a deal with Valencia last year to sign goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili this summer, while they are also interested in signing Milos Kerkez from AFC Bournemouth.

Federico Chiesa was the only addition to Slot’s inherited squad last summer after the Dutchman took over from the long-serving Jurgen Klopp after a trophy-laden nine years.

And while Slot is adamant his squad is already strong enough to go again and improve further without new recruits, he admitted is hopeful they will sign ‘good’ and ‘right’ new players this summer.

Slot

“Hopefully that appetite (to win again) will be big, but that is what we have to see in the upcoming weeks,” he said. “We will see this when pre-season starts and when we start again.

“A few of them have already shown that they can win multiple times, so I'm talking about the ones that have won the league and the Champions League here before, and these are also the players that just keep on performing year after year after year, even if they don't win it.

“And a few of them now won the league for the first time and they have to show that they have the same mentality as the ones that have won it here before and I'm looking forward to being part of that.

“We know it's going to be tough again, it was already very tough this season.

“It's going to be probably just as tough or even tougher next season because the clubs that we've competed with this season have always, in every window, always invested a lot of money and they're probably going to do so this summer as well.

“We did things differently last season. We didn't do, apart from signing Federico Chiesa last summer, we didn't do a lot and that makes it maybe even more special than to win it this season.

“Now we will see if the team needs… we can do things better already by ourselves without adding any players, but if we can, then we will definitely do so.”

He continued:

“Everybody was a bit surprised we didn't strengthen the team last year and, as a result, have won the league, so there is not one thing that is smart to do.

“If we need to strengthen the team, we will because I don't know yet if all the players who didn't play that much this season will all want to stay, yes or no.

“This is something we will find out in the upcoming weeks.

“This club has always worked in a way that if it's addressed the right target, we're trying to sign that one. We do it our own way.

“We are not hurried or rushed by... a lot of people say this club really knows what they're doing and that's the same what we're going to do this summer as well”

“We just want good players and ideally you sign them as soon as you can, but it's not always easy to sign good players, let alone to sign them early in the window.

“But this club doesn't start working after today or from today onwards. There is so much hard work being done behind the scenes already this season to find out which targets we have and try to sign them.

“I have all the confidence that, if we've addressed the right player, that we try to sign that player.

“But let's see when that's going to happen and if that's going to happen because I'm very happy with this squad we already have.

“Radical changes you will not see because that would be a bit weird if we won the league. If the whole team stays together, we can still improve.

“Even with this team. We need to improve with this team but if we are able to bring new players in, maybe you have to adapt to their qualities as well.

“But it will never be drastic because this is the playing style I prefer, this is the playing style the club prefers and our fans want to see.

“We try to find players, if we think we need a new player, who can fit this playing style but you always adjust towards maybe new things you can expect and you try to improve from this season.”