Just one new signing in Arne Slot’s team – Why haven’t Liverpool spent any money this summer?

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Anfield austerity 

This summer’s transfer window has been an unusual one for a number of reasons but perhaps the oddest aspect of it from a Premier League point of view is the manner in which two of the three best teams in the English top-flight have hardly spent any money. While Arsenal have spent around €109 million on signing new players, Manchester City and Liverpool have so far spent between them just €67m on signing new players, while making a remarkable income of €188m on player sales. This, perhaps, isn’t a massive surprise for Pep Guardiola’s star-studded side. After all, only Real Madrid can lay claim to a more valuable squad than the English champions and if the last five Premier League seasons are anything to go by, there’s only so much you can add to perfection. But something else entirely is going on at Anfield, where new manager Arne Slot has shown no interest at all in spending money on new players, aside from the arrival of winger Federico Chiesa for a paltry sum and goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili, who won’t even join the club until next season. So why haven’t Liverpool spent any money this summer? 

Perhaps the most obvious reason behind Liverpool’s austere approach to this summer’s transfer window is simply down to the fact that Slot feels as though he has inherited a ready-made squad from Jürgen Klopp that’s still capable of challenging for major silverware. As fans of the Anfield club will remember, Klopp’s team did well to keep pace with Man City and Liverpool until about two-thirds of the way through the league campaign, where injuries and fatigue began to take their toll. Indeed, over the course of the campaign, key players like Alisson, Andy Robertson, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Diogo Jota all missed large chunks of the league season. And rather than sign new players this summer to replace them, Slot simply may be expecting these players to play a bigger role for the club this time around. But there may also be a financial reason behind Liverpool’s lack of signings. 

When we consider Liverpool’s activity in the transfer market during Klopp’s time at the club, it certainly suggests that the Anfield side spent a large amount of money on players to rebuild the squad prior to the German manager departing the club. As the graph above shows, Liverpool’s outgoing on player signings and income from player sales more or less followed similar paths between 2015/16 and 2019/20, with the club’s net spend in the transfer window over those five seasons amounting to just €119m. But in the following four years, leading up to Klopp departing the club, money spent on new players far exceeded income from player sales to the tune of a much higher figure of €305m. And while that figure may pale in comparison to what Chelsea, Manchester United or Arsenal’s net spend was during that period of time, it certainly points to the club investing in new players to rebuild the squad. And, perhaps rather crucially, suggests that Liverpool may be intent on getting the most out of the players they’ve already signed, while looking to cover their losses in the transfer market by winning silverware or selling players down the line. Which explains why Slot hasn’t been handed a blank cheque book this summer.