The Liverpool chair, Tom Werner, has confirmed the club’s busy summer has already begun with the Premier League champions in talks over the record transfer of Florian Wirtz and close to wrapping up a deal for his Bayer Leverkusen team-mate Jeremie Frimpong.
Liverpool are favourites to sign Wirtz after he turned down a move to Bayern Munich and Manchester City pulled out of the running. Negotiations have started over a fee with Leverkusen, who want £126m (€150m) for the Germany international. That would comfortably eclipse Liverpool’s record transfer, the £85m that brought Darwin Núñez from Benfica in 2022, but the club hope to structure a deal with Leverkusen accepting a lower initial fee plus achievable add-ons.
Fenway Sports Group, Liverpool’s owners, spent modestly during Arne Slot’s successful debut season, signing only Federico Chiesa from Juventus, in a deal that could rise to £12m, and the Valencia goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili for £29m. The club are now in a position to spend heavily and there is hope inside Anfield that Wirtz and Frimpong, who has a £30m release clause, could be secured early in the summer transfer window.
Werner, when asked if he expected a busy transfer window for the new champions, said: “It’s already busy.” He also said he expected the squad to be even stronger for the start of their title defence. “We go again. It never gets old, winning. We owe it to all of our supporters to bring back a team even better next season.”
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Wirtz, who can play across the frontline, is one of the most coveted players in Europe and is understood to be impressed by Liverpool’s plans. Frimpong has already passed a Liverpool medical and the arrival of the right-back, a close friend of Wirtz, should be confirmed when the window officially opens. The Bournemouth left-back Milos Kerkez is another target for Liverpool.
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Slot said it would be ideal to have new signings in place early, with preseason scheduled to begin on July 8th. The Liverpool head coach said on Sunday: “This club doesn’t start [on transfers] after today or from today onwards. There is so much hard work already done behind the scenes this season to find out which targets we have and try to sign them. I have all the confidence that if we have addressed the right player, we try to sign that player but let’s see when that is going to happen and if that’s going to happen, because I’m very happy with the squad we already have.”
Liverpool’s transfer budget is expected to be increased by outgoings. Núñez, Chiesa, Caoimhin Kelleher, Kostas Tsimikas and Ben Doak are among those who could leave this summer.
Virgil van Dijk, meanwhile, has revealed it was his idea to be presented with the Premier League trophy on Sunday by the former Liverpool captain and defender Alan Hansen. The 69-year-old was seriously ill last summer and received a rapturous reception when parading the trophy in front of the Kop alongside Van Dijk.
The Liverpool captain said: “I was very determined to make sure that he was going to be the one who handed the trophy to me. I am happy it worked out. I am also happy that Mark and Jo [McVeigh] from the Owen McVeigh Foundation, who I’ve worked with quite a lot over the last years, were able to also join in.
“Alan Hansen is one of the greatest centre-backs this club has ever seen. I’d met him before and had a little chat. He was ill last year. I’m glad he’s looking well now. I was really happy for him that he also had his moment in front of the Kop because he totally deserved it.”
Meanwhile, Erik ten Hag, the former Manchester United and Ajax coach, has been announced as Xabi Alonso’s replacement at Bayer Leverkusen. After Alonso’s departure to Real Madrid, with the Basque set to be unveiled on Monday, Leverkusen, who finished second in the Bundesliga this season, have alighted on the Dutchman sacked by United in October.
The 55-year-old has signed a contract until 2027 and previously worked in German football as a coach at Bayern Munich. – Guardian
