As everyone knows, Arne Slot’s first season in charge of Liverpool turned out to be a roaring success as we comfortably lifted the Premier League trophy to notch up title win number 20, however, fans can expect our gaffer to have a far busier summer this time around when it comes to the transfer market.
For fans who like a flutter and gambled on odds being offered by UK betting sites not on GamStop on us lifting the title last summer, they will be hoping that their luck continues when they decide where to place the bets for next season and potential transfer dealings could feature highly for those who enjoy those sorts of punts.
Slot is already on record as saying that he is hopeful of seeing at least a couple of new, and fresh faces, come through the Anfield doors, but he also spoke about wanting to keep some of our fringe players around and getting them greater game time. So we should not expect a revolving door approach when the window officially opens, as it is more likely it will be one in, one out to keep numbers tight.
With speculation about our capture of Bayer Leverkusen full back Jeremie Frimpong continuing, we are also being linked with a big money move for German colleague Florian Wirzt, but allied to that there is also plenty of talk of departures, and Caoimhin Kelleher, Diogo Jota and Darwin Nunez are all now regulars on the transfer window rumour mill.
The 26 year old, Republic of Ireland international stopper, was one of the first players rumoured to be off this summer as he is now entering the final 12 months on his contract. Although he has only made 67 first team appearances for us since graduating through our youth Academy ranks, his performances have been of a high standard and he was very quickly linked with clubs like Brentford, Aston Villa and he will undoubtedly have a number of other suitors.
With him unlikely to displace Alisson Becker between the sticks at any time soon, Kelleher has not hidden the fact that he is very open to moving on in the search for far more regular game time, and with it believed that our baseline valuation is around the £20 million mark, he will definitely have a number of offers to choose from in the next few months.
With Brentford stopper Mark Flekken expected to make the move to Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen, and with significant doubts surrounding the future of Argentine World Cup winner Emi Martinez at Villa Park, both clubs do stand out as an obvious potential destination as he would expect to move to either as their new Number 1.
Other Premier League options will likely present themselves in the coming weeks though as West Ham United and newly promoted Leeds United have already been linked as having an interest in the wider media, and even AFC Bournemouth have featured in a few headlines as they will also be assessing their options this summer given that Kepa Arrizabalaga has now returned to parent club Chelsea following his season long loan to the South Coast.
With Kelleher quoted as saying that he feels ‘like I’m a number one’ and that he is ‘good enough to play week in, week out’ he will absolutely get the chance to prove it this summer with the only real questions being which club does he depart for, and how much do we get for him?
