4 weeks ago
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Liverpool's summer spend is set to fly well beyond $300 million following the news that the club has agreed terms with Hugo Ekitike over a move to Anfield.
The Frankfurt striker has been a player in demand this summer, with a host of Premier League clubs linked with him, but it is the Reds who look set to get a deal over the line. Ekitike will be Liverpool's fourth major addition of the summer following the acquisitions of Florian Wirtz, Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong.
The business that the club has done has got fans excited for the new season, and the amount of money Liverpool has spent might have come as a bit of a surprise to some people — but Virgil van Dijk is not one of those people.
Speaking after signing a two-year contract extension toward the end of last season, Van Dijk suggested that one of the reasons that he had committed his future to the club was its ambitious plans over the summer.
"I think Liverpool should be able to challenge for titles in the upcoming years," Van Dijk said. "Whatever happens in terms of players going out, players coming in, I think it should be a big summer.
"I think they're planning to make it a big summer, so we all have to trust the board, as a Liverpool connected fan, to do the right job."
He added: “As champions it is a very difficult task to remain champions but I feel with additions we can make that step up.
"We can have a proper pre-season, we can work on the things the manager wants us to do in ball possession and without ball possession, a lot of hard work will be done.
“It’s something to look forward to, it’s very exciting and it’s an exciting time to be associated with Liverpool.
"Let’s see what happens but I fully trust the decision-makers to do the right things and let’s see what those right things are.”
On the flip side, prospective new players seeing Van Dijk and Mohamed Salah commit their futures to Liverpool at the end of last season would no doubt have helped to convince them to make the move to Anfield.
That's something Arne Slot was asked about after Salah penned a new deal in April.
"If I would put myself in the shoes of a player who we might want to sign, it’s always nice to tell them that Mo has extended his contract,” Slot said.
“So that helps, but what helps the most is that we kept a quality player that scored seven or eight years in a row so many goals for us."
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