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Liverpool head coach Arne Slot has dismissed any suggestions of a change in transfer strategy from his side this summer, insisting that the Reds have spent similar amounts on players in the past if adjusted for inflation.
In full context, Liverpool has brought in almost as much as it has splashed out on new signings in the three windows that Slot has been at the helm for. And he says it was necessary to go as big as Liverpool has this summer because of several factors.
"There is a big difference between Liverpool and Feyenoord," Slot said on the Men In Blazers podcast. "The difference is that at Feyenoord, there is a level above.
"There is no level above Liverpool so at a club like Feyenoord, the players who perform really well make the next step in their career. They either go to the Premier League or to La Liga, or somewhere else.
"At a club like Liverpool, it is quite normal that players stay where they are. But I think people tend to forget at the moment, you mentioned $300M spent, but people are forgetting how much money we brought in not only this summer, but also last summer.
"Last summer, we had a big plus. We earned more than we spent. This summer, people also forget that we have lost Caoimhin Kelleher, Jarell Quansah, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez.
"And the biggest tragedy of all was that Diogo Jota passed away. So many of them have played a lot of minutes for us that it is normal that we also need to spend.
"We have spent big compared to last season but if you balance it up, what we did this summer and what we made last summer, then I think the balance is maybe almost equal.
"That is something that is quite rare in the Premier League. Normally teams only spend and never sell."
While Liverpool has spent around $300M already this summer, it has brought back around half of that in player sales. Alexander Isak arriving could change those figures again, but Slot says there is a reason for being prepared to pay big fees.
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"I think it is [almost] impossible to bring a player in who is good enough to play for us for a small amount of money," he explained. "Every player that is playing for us and won the league with us is worth around $100M or more.
"You want competition for these players, then you almost always have to spend, unless you find a player that no one ever saw and all of a sudden, you can buy him for $30M and he is good enough.
"But that isn't going to happen every single time, so if we want to improve the team and bring players in that are good enough to play for us, then spending this amount is normal.
"It is also what this club did in the past with Alisson Becker and Virgil van Dijk. If you add inflation, you come to the numbers that we have just paid for Florian Wirtz, for example."
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