Liverpool have enjoyed another positive week with Virgil van Dijk putting pen to paper and Arne Slot is expecting that to be followed up in the transfer market this summer
Arne Slot believes Liverpool tying down Virgil van Dijk and Mo Salah to new deals shows the ambition the club has to keep on succeeding. The Dutch boss also claims that the new contracts for their top earners is the start of what will be a “big summer” at Anfield.
Van Dijk, 33, joined Salah in committing the next two years of his career to the Reds after a contract saga was put to bed this week. Ahead of Sunday’s clash with Leicester in which Liverpool could win the Premier League title, Slot said: “It tells you that we want to keep our best players.
“The players that have played a great season for so many years in row. When we are able to keep them as free agents, it tells the ambitions we have for the upcoming years. I’m really happy both extended.
“Virgil has so important, defensively and offensively, in and around dressing room. A great personality and a great football player.”
READ MORE: Trent Alexander-Arnold responds to Virgil van Dijk’s new Liverpool contractREAD MORE: Liverpool to prove THIRTY BBC pundits wrong with stunning Premier League title win
Van Dijk said last week that he expects a big summer this year for Liverpool. They are about to win the Premier League at a canter and it could be secured this weekend if Arsenal lose at Ipswich and the Reds beat the Foxes at the King Power Stadium.
Liverpool will know they can’t stand still in the transfer market with the likes of Manchester City and Arsenal ready to splash the cash. But Slot admits Liverpool’s summer is already underway with the signing of Salah and Van Dijk to new contracts.
He said: “I think at Liverpool there is always a big summer and it is already a big summer now. Maybe the players don’t follow everything what has been said in the media, me neither, but what I do know it was it was a big thing – ‘Can we hold onto them?’ – and by already holding on to two it is already a big summer.
“Let’s see what the rest of the summer will bring but it would be strange for me to say now I am not happy with the team we are having because I’ve said this for a year, we are happy with the team we are having. Maybe if we can keep that team it will already be a big summer. We didn’t change anything last summer and we didn’t go downwards, so we showed the opposite last season because we didn’t change anything.
“But in general I agree [about standing still] but there are also lots of studies being done that the longer a team plays together the more success it has. So I think the core of the team you want to keep as long as they perform together in the best possible way.
“But it is also in general good to have some new energy around the place with new players, that I agree on. But it is not a necessity if you look at the quality we have and the quality of the season we have had.”
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