By James Cranford
With one Premier League trophy landed at the first time of asking, Arne Slot is rightfully receiving plaudits for a superb debut season as Liverpool head coach.
The Reds were written off as title contenders by most pundits but went on to win the league at a canter. Attention is now turning to next season and which players Slot would like to bring in to aid the club in the quest for more silverware.
Club captain Virgil van Dijk has suggested LFC could be in for a ‘big summer’ in the transfer market and could show a massive statement of intent by landing Bayer Leverkusen star Florian Wirtz for a fee north of £100 million.
Wirtz was heavily linked with a move to Bayern Munich, but journalists including The Athletic’s David Ornstein and Paul Joyce of The Times have reported the 22-year-old favours a move to Merseyside.
On the latest episode of our Journo Insight show, we asked the Liverpool Echo’s LFC correspondent, Paul Gorst for his thoughts on the Wirtz developments.
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Paul said:
“You’re not going to get people telling you Wirtz is nailed on and ‘very confident’ and all that sort of stuff, certainly not at this stage.
“By all accounts, what is happening now is that Florian Wirtz is on holiday after his Bundesliga season. He is taking his time to make his next move, and that will be done with his parents.
“If there is a world where he fancies a change of scenery, I think Leverkusen would ideally like him to move to the Premier League. If that is the case, Liverpool will be front of that queue.
“Would Florian Wirtz mean a change in style in terms of how Liverpool operates with their frontmen? Let’s face it, they’ve won the league without having a significant contribution from a number 9 this season.
“Is there a world where Liverpool look to continue with the wide players being the main source of goals – Díaz, Gakpo and Salah? And get someone like Florian Wirtz in the team to aid that creativity that is going to be leaving the team via Trent Alexander-Arnold.
“I think there are a lot of things that are interesting about this tactically and stylistically, and also it would be an unbelievable statement signing.”
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REDMEN REACTS
Time to get excited. Links to Florian Wirtz were dismissed by many as a long shot, given the potential club record fee involved and the assumption that Bayern Munich would repeat their tried-and-trusted strategy of hoovering up the best talent the Bundesliga has to offer. Sky Sports Germany’s Florian Plettenberg has nailed his colours to the mast by declaring that Wirtz has ‘turned down FC Bayern’, with Liverpool now expected to make a huge bid. The German star reportedly spent some time with LFC officials on a brief trip to the North West last week – fingers crossed he was impressed with what the club had to offer. The 22-year-old is a versatile attacking talent and has played across the front three, but prefers the ‘10’ role just behind the striker. Would his arrival necessitate a change in Arne Slot’s formation? Or could he provide a deeper-lying threat from centre forward, a la Roberto Firmino? One thing is for certain – Kopites around the world are itching to find out.
