Beth Lindop
Arne Slot has refused to be drawn on Liverpool’s interest in Newcastle United striker Alexander Isak but has said the club will continue to explore the market for potential new signings.
The Premier League champions saw a £110 million ($145m) bid for Isak rejected last week.
While their interest in the player remains, a source told ESPN Newcastle would have to indicate a willingness to part with their star striker for Liverpool to return with an improved bid this summer.
With Luis Díaz having left Anfield to join Bayern Munich last month and Darwin Núñez closing in on a move to Saudi Pro League side Al-Hilal, sources told ESPN Liverpool are keen to add another forward to their ranks, though any incoming player would have to be of sufficient quality to start and represent fair market value.
“As you know from me and it’s the same for a lot of managers, you never talk about a player who isn’t yours,” Slot said when asked about Liverpool’s interest in Isak on Friday.
“I can talk about Hugo [Ekitike], who we signed recently and has done really well until now.
“We are really happy with the squad we have and there is every reason to be happy about that because we won the league last season.
“OK, players left but we’ve brought players in as well and youngsters are doing good. At this moment in time, Darwin might leave but things are not signed yet so we need to wait a few days before that’s completely done.
“I think we already have a lot of attacking power in our team. When I think about Cody Gakpo, Federico Chiesa, Hugo Ekitike, Mo [Mohamed] Salah, Jeremie Frimpong who can play as a right winger, Florian Wirtz who can play as a left winger, so I already feel I have a lot of attacking options.
“But as always as a club we are always looking at the chances in the market but that can also be in the midfield and the last line,” Slot said.
Liverpool travel to Wembley this weekend to take on FA Cup winners Crystal Palace in the FA Community Shield, and Slot has acknowledged his team will have to be at their best if they hope to start the new season with some silverware.
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“It’s nice if you can start the season with the chance of winning something because normally you have to play numerous games before you have the chance of winning something,” the Liverpool boss said.
“Normally you win something at the end of the season, now we have a chance to win something at the beginning. Unfortunately, we face a very good Crystal Palace team who’ve been very difficult to win against for us.
“Counter-attacks, set-pieces, long-balls to [Jean-Phillipe] Mateta and individual quality of their forwards … Palace will hit the ground running again, it is still the same team. A good challenge for us to start the season.”
