Arne Slot has said he is “happy” with the contribution from Diogo Jota and Darwin Nunez and claimed he has no plans to sell either player this summer.
Both have been linked with a possible exit from Anfield when the transfer market opens, while Liverpool is reportedly monitoring several no.9s including the likes of Alexander Isak, Hugo Ekitike and Liam Delap.
It could be a busy summer window for Liverpool, with Jamie Carragher claiming on Friday that the Reds need to make six additions before the 2025/26 season, including a striker. That would invariably mean at least one of Nunez or Jota would leave, but Slot was coy when asked about that possibility on Friday and joked that he was pleased to move away from the regular questions about the futures of Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah.
“It is funny now that we go from Mo, Virgil, Trent to players who have long-term contracts,” the Liverpool boss said ahead of the Reds’ trip to Fulham. “No, I am happy with Diogo and I am happy with Darwin. But I always say in football there is no long term without the short term and I am fully focused on the short term.
“Since he and Darwin both have contracts for years, the last thing that is on my mind is these two. Of course, we are a bit focused on the other players (Alexander-Arnold, Salah and Van Dijk); me a bit, Richard [Hughes] probably a lot. But the ones who have a contract I am not focused on that at all.”
Slot also echoed Van Dijk’s incredulous response to questions from Michael Owen about whether the season would be seen as a disappointment if Liverpool “only” won the Premier League.
“Is he aware of the fact that in 35 years we won the league once?” Slot responded, after guiding the Reds to within 13 points of a Premier League title in his first season as Liverpool manager, while so far only losing one league game.
(Image: Getty Images)
Slot doesn’t think that achievement should be overlooked and pointed to the quality right across the division as an indication of how difficult it is to perform consistently every week.
“The league is better than it ever was,” he opined. “Even Pep [Guardiola] said there will not be a team again as long as he lives that gets more than 100 points and wins the league four in a row.
“So many more teams have so many more good players. All clubs, even some who are fighting against relegation, have some players who can play for [Manchester] City, for Arsenal, for us, for Chelsea and these types of teams.
The reason why teams you might expect to have more points don’t have them is because the league has become stronger. That is probably why it is such a compliment for us that we do have those points at the moment.”
Liverpool travels to Fulham on Sunday and could take another giant step towards winning the title, while second-place Arsenal makes the journey to Merseyside on Saturday to face Everton.
