Arne Slot insists Liverpool do not have ‘unlimited money’ despite their £450million summer spend – and any talk over January additions must take this into account.
The Premier League champions look a couple of players light given injuries, with their summer deadline-day collapsed £35million move for Marc Guehi looking costly given they only have two fit senior centre halves.
Liverpool are also admirers of Bournemouth forward Antoine Semenyo who looks increasingly likely to be on the move in the winter. The £65m-rated Ghana winger has seven goals and three assists this term and is also of interest to Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham.
But Slot insisted: ‘The outside world wants to believe we have unlimited money but that is not true.
‘You insiders know – and you are the only ones because the outside world only talks about our spending – what we have brought in (money) to spend (referring to how Liverpool balanced out their big spend by bringing in more than £200m in player sales).
‘That is the way we work over here. You then have to accept that in certain games during a season you are short of a right full back. But we are still able to win. I fully believe in that way of working, by the way.’
Arne Slot insists Liverpool do not have ‘unlimited money’ amid their interest in Bournemouth’s Antoine Semenyo, who has a £65m release clause until January 10
Liverpool retain interest in Marc Guehi, who saw a £35m move to the club collapse on deadline day in the summer
Asked if he would like a defender as a Christmas present, Slot pointed to how the Reds signed young Italian Giovanni Leoni for £26m from Parma in the summer only for him to suffer an anterior cruciate ligament injury on his debut.
‘The injury of Giovanni has quite a lot of impact,’ added Slot, who is without Joe Gomez for Saturday’s trip to Tottenham. Full backs Conor Bradley and Jeremie Frimpong will return to the squad but neither have been consistently fit this year.
‘If you have four centre backs for the season, two right and two left backs with Wata (Endo) and Ryan (Gravenberch) who can help you out, but then you have an ACL injury, that is not very helpful. It is tough.
‘And unfortunately Joe (Gomez) is now out of the squad again tomorrow. In a season, these moments for most teams happen. Some teams have so many (options) but most other teams do not. This is our way of working at Liverpool.’
The Anfield club have not ruled out making winter moves and have done this before, with Cody Gakpo and Luis Diaz both examples of them bringing forward planned summer transfers in recent years.
Guehi also has admirers at Manchester City, Bayern Munich and other continental clubs. He is available on a free transfer in the summer and could secure himself a big financial package if he was to move for no fee.
Liverpool retain a good relationship with his camp after seeing a move, which was 99 per cent complete, fall through on the orders of Palace chairman Steve Parish. They have also done leg-work on Semenyo who has a £65m release clause active until January 10.
The Reds boss earlier added that everyone at the club has fully ‘moved on’ from the Mohamed Salah saga. Midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai should be fit to face Spurs after an ankle injury but Cody Gakpo remains out for at least two more games.
