Arne Slot has suggested that Liverpool midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai is worth £100 million ($136.5 million) as a response to pundits he claims “favour” other teams off the back of a record Premier League spend during the summer transfer window.
Liverpool recruited aggressively to the tune of £450 million, including two new British record transfers for Florian Wirtz (£116 million) and Alexander Isak (£125 million). It is more than a Premier League club has ever invested in a single window before.
However, the Reds also recouped up to £226 million by selling off players, like Darwin Núñez, Luis Díaz and Caoimhín Kelleher, deemed expendable or surplus to requirements.
Slot, although rounding up in his figures, has claimed that side of things is being too easily forgotten, while insisting that players like Wirtz and Isak are joining a squad of players already carrying similar values. It therefore takes, in this logic, an enormous spend to be able to improve on that existing level.
“There’s so much focus on our new signings and especially pundits who favour, not us, but some other clubs in the country that cannot stop talking about £450 million,” Slot told reporters.
“I repeat £450 million, £450 million but always forget the £300 million that we've sold.
“These players we’ve brought in are a lot of money but are playing now with players worth the same amount of money. If we want to strengthen the squad we have to spend that money. If we were to sell Dominik Szoboszlai tomorrow he’d be worth £100 million as well.”
Although other clubs across the Premier League had to be much more careful with their summer recruitment, Liverpool were never believed to even be close to encountering any PSR problems. Several factors, including boosted commercial revenue, Premier League prize money and barely spending anything on new players last summer all contributed to that.
“I think it is only a compliment that people tell everyone we have spent so much because that tells you the players we brought in are seen as very good players,” Slot continued.
“I think all the money we have spent we generated ourselves by selling, and by winning the league after we didn’t buy anyone at all.”
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as ‘I Repeat’—Defiant Arne Slot Prices Liverpool Midfielder at £100 Million.