Liverpool manager Arne Slot at the end of his team's preseason win against Manchester United in South Carolina. Photograph: John Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Imagessporting director. “A quiet July, then a crescendo in August probably awaits us all,” the former Bournemouth technical director said just over a month ago. The crescendo is some way off with Liverpool yet to make a sound in the transfer market, but there are good reasons for slowly building towards one.
Liverpool never anticipated a busy summer, at least in terms of in-comings, for several reasons. Aside from a defensive midfielder there is a belief that there are no glaring holes to fill in a team that remains in the early stages of its development and capable of improving on last season’s third-place finish.
There is the complication of a new head coach starting in a summer when the European Championships, Copa America and Olympics have been taking place. That, however, has not prevented the four other Premier League clubs under new management from strengthening their squads this summer. But Slot, as mentioned, wanted to assess the players available to him in the US before having his say on Liverpool’s next moves, in and out.
Slot seemed extremely relaxed on the US tour about the lack of new faces and, like Klopp when he first arrived at Liverpool, bemused by what he perceives as a British obsession with transfers.