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Crystal Palace head coach Oliver Glasner has admitted he has been surprised by Liverpool’s transfer business this summer.
The Premier League champions have spent close to $400million, or around £300M in the transfer market despite winning the title with four games to spare last season. The arrivals of Florian Wirtz and Hugo Ekitike will strengthen Arne Slot’s attacking resources, Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez will offer more speed in the full-back positions, while three new goalkeepers have transformed the support group behind Alisson.
Liverpool is also unlikely to be done in the market with a center-back needed and Alexander Isak still of interest. Glasner has reveled he was not expecting such a large squad overhaul at Anfield this summer.
“Liverpool have obviously invested heavily this year with Florian Wirz, Hugo Ekitike, Frimpong and Kerkez. I don’t know if they’ll bring in Isak now too,” the Palace coach told Sky Sport Austria ahead of this weekend’s clash against Liverpool in the Community Shield.
“They’ve been playing at this level for years, so I have to say I was a bit surprised that they were so active, but of course it also shows their ambitions.
“I think you can always clearly see a club’s ambitions in the transfer market. And it seems that Liverpool FC isn’t satisfied with just winning the English league; I think they want to win the Champions League.
“They obviously saw that [they] needed to add one or two things to the squad, and they made that very clear and explicit early on this summer.”
Unsurprisingly, Glasner expects Liverpool to be among the frontrunners for the title again this season and feels one of four clubs could be crowned Premier League champions in 2025/26.
“The usual suspects: yes, of course, Liverpool will have a say again, City will have a say, Arsenal, who are also, well,” he said on the title race.
“Four or five clubs have invested heavily again. If I take City, over €300m in 2025, Liverpool similarly, I think Arsenal not far behind, Chelsea exactly the same, so you can see that they want to win the Premier League, they want to win the Champions League.
“And these teams, yes, Tottenham also has a very good team and has also got a great coach here now.
“They obviously had a great coach who won the Europa League, but I do think that one of Liverpool, City, Arsenal, or Chelsea will then win the title.
“Man United has also clearly shown their ambitions. But I think, based on the last one or two years, it’s so easy here, not to catch up in one year, but maybe in two or three.”
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