Liverpool’s sporting director Richard Hughes has had a rare public outing discussing the club’s transfer business, including paying “fair market value” for their targets.
There was pressure mounting on Hughes late into the 2024/25 season, with only one signing the previous summer (Federico Chiesa), and three senior players still without new contracts.
Ultimately, Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah‘s contracts were extended, the club banked £8.4 million for free agent Trent Alexander-Arnold and 10 new signings were confirmed.
It turned into a statement summer off the back of winning the Premier League title, with Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz among those to turn their back on all others in favour of joining Liverpool.
• READ: Alexander Isak ‘felt his body more than ever’ – Slot casts doubt on Everton start
Hughes, along with Michael Edwards, have set the squad up for long-term success, and Liverpool’s sporting director spoke publicly on the club’s strategy at the IMG x RedBird Summit on Thursday.
“As best you can, you have to detach yourself from what the transfer fee is likely to be,” Hughes said, via the Athletic.
“First and foremost, the identification of the right player for the right system for the right head coach has a fair amount of importance, and I think this is not something that’s necessarily new for the football club and its ownership.
“If you look at what was paid for Alisson Becker (£66.8m in 2018) and Virgil van Dijk (£75m in 2018) in history and you equate that to what that would be in 2025 money, you’re not far away from where you are with some of the fees that have been spent this summer.
“We pay what we believe to be fair market value for a player based on age and based on necessity of that individual to fit into the squad.
“In the fullness of time, we hope that, instead of talking now about what a huge fee it is, it has been value for money for the football club whenever we’re making that assessment in the future.
“And because of the ages of the players that we’ve bought, we’re confident that will end up being the case.”
Seven of the key signings over the summer have an average age of 22.4 years, it sets the team up for years to come rather than simply being viewed as an investment to flip down the line.
“That would be very much the hope and in buying a player young, you give yourself the ability for that to be the case,” Hughes said on signing younger players.
“We also want to try and win now, and that’s important as well, so I’m not describing them as works in progress or anything like that.
“These are players who have already done a lot in their individual careers. We talk about Florian and Alex, but Milos, Jeremie and Hugo are players that have achieved a certain level in the game already.”
It is rare that we hear from Hughes, with Slot the one left to discuss transfer business publicly despite his defined role as a head coach, which is not always fair on the Liverpool boss.