Steve McManaman has claimed that Jurgen Klopp does not need to make any further additions to his Liverpool squad this month but questioned how the German boss is going to keep all of his players happy this season.
He explained that he can ‘see a number of players leaving’ in order to help the club ‘recoup some of the money the’ve spent’ on their three summer additions so far – Fabio Carvalho, Darwin Nunez and Calvin Ramsay.
“I don’t believe Liverpool need to make more signings this summer,” he told horseracing.net (via the Liverpool Echo).
“Where would you put them? They’ve made three signings already this summer. They’ve brought in Fabio Carvalho and Calvin Ramsay, who are two players for the future and they’ve also brought in Darwin Nunez, who’s another player for the future to a certain extent but has cost them a lot of money.
“Players will have to leave as there isn’t enough space to fit everybody in. Keeping the players happy now is as hard a job as it is to jam all of these players into the team. I can see a number of players leaving, with Liverpool beginning to recoup some of the money they’ve spent. That just makes business sense.”
Liverpool have never been the type of side to splash the cash like Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea have done in recent years, but by purchasing and selling smartly, we’ve ensured that we’ve remained competitive whilst keeping our net spend as low as possible.
In terms of keeping players happy, we played 63 games last season meaning our entire squad was required and most players earned their fair share of game time across the campaign.
Nunez arrived from Benfica recently for an initial fee of £64m – that deal has some potential add-ons included which could increase the fee to a total of £85m.
That would make the Uruguayan our most expensive ever signing, surpassing the £75m we paid to Southampton for Virgil van Dijk back in 2018.
The club are reportedly wanting to add reinforcements in midfield next, but only if the right candidate is available at the right price.
Aurelien Tchoumani was believed to be a target for Klopp, but the young Frenchman has opted to join Real Madrid from Monaco this summer whilst Borussia Dortmund’s Jude Bellingham is another name that’s been linked with the Anfield outfit.
It’s believed that Ramsay was our last incoming, though, and therefore any potential deal for Bellingham will be revisited next year.
McManaman believes the Reds’ remaining activity in the current window will be determined by how many players depart the club in the coming weeks.
“The only way they could potentially go for somebody else is if five or so players leave this summer. There’s talk of Neco Williams leaving, which is completely correct as he needs to start playing football regularly and the same goes for Nat Phillips,” he added.
“They’ve both had great seasons with both Fulham and Bournemouth respectively, after helping their clubs get promoted to the Premier League.
“At the moment though, there are just too many bodies to keep bringing people in.”