Pep Guardiola being unable to give assurances about his future saw Florian Wirtz reject Man City and join Liverpool this summer, according to reports.
The Reds have made a strong start to the summer transfer market after Arne Slot guided them to the Premier League title in his first season as manager.
And now the The Times reporter Paul Joyce has revealed that Wirtz only rejected Man City because he couldn’t get an ’emphatic’ answer from Guardiola over his future.
Arne Slot said Liverpool’s huge moves in the transfer window this summer have been justified by player sales, suggesting the club has done nothing new.
A £116 million fee for Florian Wirz is the highlight of what has been a summer of spending for the Anfield side with Hugo Ekitike, Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong all arriving for significant sums.
But while rivals fans cry PSR, Slot says Liverpool’s spending has been entirely justified by the number of outgoing players, including most recently Luis Diaz’s £65.5 million move to Bayern Munich.
“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?” Slot told the Athletic.
“Did Liverpool in the past five or six years ever sell players like Jarell Quansah, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Caoimhin Kelleher, and Luis Diaz? And 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. So if you balance things out, we’ve spent, for sure, but we’ve also recouped money.”
Liverpool’s incoming totals equate to around €133 million this summer but there is still money to be spent judging by their continued interest in Alexander Isak.
Slot, while not mentioning Isak, did say that if high-profile players leave then there is a need to replace them “with quality.”