Arne Slot makes Mohamed Salah claim after Liverpool’s Champions League exit
Arne Slot admits Liverpool will need to ‘sell to buy’ in order to replace Mohamed Salah this summer.
Liverpool crashed out of the Champions League on Tuesday night as two second-half goals from Ousmane Dembele sealed a 2-0 win for Paris Saint-Germain at Anfield.
Salah made his final Champions League appearance for Liverpool as he came off the bench in the first half to replace Hugo Ekitike, who is set to miss the rest of the season with an Achilles injury.
The 33-year-old has already confirmed he will leave Liverpool on a free transfer at the end of the season, while Andy Robertson is also departing Anfield as a free agent this summer.
Slot admits Liverpool face a ‘big challenge’ in the next transfer window and suggests the club may need to offload more key first-team players before making new signings.
‘I think much is being said recently and maybe by many people also through this year that the club is in a transition,’ Slot told Amazon Prime after Liverpool’s defeat at Anfield.
‘We’ve sold eight to ten players to recoup money to sign four, five, six very talented and good players.
‘Now we are losing Mo and Andy Robertson on a free transfer as we lost Trent [Alexander-Arnold] on a free transfer, and this model of the club means we have to sell usually to buy.
‘It’s a big challenge, it was already last season and it’s going to be a challenge in the summer again.
‘But this club has also showed many times this model works and we can be very successful with this model and I think we’ve signed, which you could see today, very good, talented players.
‘Let’s hope they’re all fit going into their second season in the Premier League, so as I said many times, the future looks really good especially if we can a few good signings after a few good players leave this summer.’
Speaking after Liverpool’s Champions League exit, Wayne Rooney dismissed Slot’s suggestion that the club are in ‘transition’.
‘I think you’re talking about rebuilds… they were champions last season,’ Rooney said after Liverpool’s Champions League exit.
‘They won the league last season and they spent an awful amount of money to try and make the squad better.
‘There’s certainly been faults from… whether that’s recruitment, obviously they’ve had players out injured but you shouldn’t be talking about a rebuild when you’ve just won the Premier League.
‘They’ve lost some really good players, you can see why the fans were so upset when they lost Trent.’
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