‘I saw it with…’ – Stan Collymore suggests Slot is taking ‘similar’ approach to current PL boss
Stan Collymore has drawn parallels between Arne Slot’s approach in the summer transfer window and that of a Premier League peer.
The absence of first-team signings as we enter the final week of July is understandably a cause of concern for many Liverpool fans, although the former Reds striker believes that the new head coach is right to take stock of the squad that he inherited before making any drastic decisions in the marketplace.
In his latest column for CaughtOffside, the 53-year-old wrote: “Liverpool fans are unhappy at the club’s lack of transfer business this summer, but what seems to happen with progressive coaches, and I saw it with Unai Emery when he came to Aston Villa, is that they’ll have a really good look at the academy and at who’s loaned out first.
“I think that the fundamentals with Liverpool at this point are fairly similar to Villa in terms of Arne Slot wanting to assess what he’s got, and that’s not just in the first team squad.
“Liverpool, historically, have been good at producing players and Slot will want to have a look at them all together before going to the technical board and saying ‘I need a right back, I need a central midfielder, I need a wide left player,’ – and I think that’s the best way to do it.”
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It’s worth pointing out that one key difference to the respective arrivals of Slot at Liverpool and Emery at Aston Villa is that, while the former came in at the start of the summer, the latter took up his current post in October 2022 and therefore couldn’t make any signings for more than two months.
The Spaniard didn’t revolutionise his squad in the Midlands at the first opportunity, with just two signings in January 2023 before five more last summer, he’s already brought in a dozen players in the current calendar year (Transfermarkt).
It makes sense that the Dutchman will want to assess his playing squad first before he decides who to retain and who to jettison, but that comes with the risk of letting the transfer window pass us by without the necessary additions being made.
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Collymore is right to advocate against a scattergun approach in the market, and that certainly hasn’t been Liverpool’s modus operandi in recent years, with the majority of signings being carefully considered (aside from, perhaps, the frantic deadline day deal for Arthur Melo) and due diligence carried out before parting with all-important funds.
We’d fully expect at least a couple of new faces through the door at Anfield before the end of August, and with Michael Edwards pulling the strings in the background, the likelihood is that any new recruits would be a good fit for the club.
If Slot can make a similarly drastic impact on Merseyside to what Emery has done at Villa, having led them from a relegation scrap to Champions League qualification in just over 18 months, then the Dutchman could deliver some glorious times in L4.
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