This year's model is RIGHT groove for Reds

SLOT HAPPY WITH TRADING FORMULA

- By PAUL GORST LFC Correspondent

O the untrained eye, the summer of 2025 marked a significant shift in the thinking at executive level at Liverpool FC.

It started in June, with the capture of Florian Wirtz, who joined for a club-record fee of £116m from Bayer Leverkusen.

That agreement, even at the base level of £100m, was still £25m more than what was paid for Virgil van Dijk in January 2018, who was at the time still the most expensive transfer of all time on Merseyside.

The £85m agreed for Darwin Nunez in the summer of 2022 was never paid in full due to the add-ons that were not triggered before the Uruguayan moved to Saudi Arabia last year.

After Wirtz, who was signed a few weeks after his good friend Jeremie Frimpong at £29m, came Milos Kerkez at £40m and Hugo Ekitike, who completed his £79m switch from Eintracht Frankfurt in July before immediately flying to meet his new colleagues in Hong Kong.

Giorgi Mamardashvili, who agreed to join the previous summer, formally ratified his £29m switch from Valencia earlier in the summer before Giovanni Leoni’s £26m transfer from Parma was confirmed on the night the Reds began their title defence at home to Bournemouth on August 15.

Last, but by no means least, was the jaw-dropping, British-record purchase of Alexander Isak, who ended an acrimonious summer with Newcastle United by departing on transfer deadline day of September 1 for £125m.

It completed a remarkable haul for the champions, whose summer-long work took them to over £450m, inclusive of add-ons.