Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glasner has reacted to Liverpool’s summer spending ahead of facing the Reds in the Community Shield
Oliver Glasner has admitted that he has been surprised by Liverpool’s transfer activity so far this summer. The Reds have committed to spending roughly £295m after signing Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitike, Milos Kerkez, Jeremie Frimpong, Giorgi Mamardashvili, Armin Pecsi, Freddie Woodman and Will Wright.
But the reigning Premier League champions might not be done yet. They remain interested in Alexander Isak, having seen an £110m bid rejected by Newcastle United for the wantaway striker last Friday.
Meanwhile, they are also in the market for a new centre-back with Crystal Palace captain Marc Guehi one player of interest as they weigh up their options following Jarell Quansah’s departure to Bayer Leverkusen.
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Liverpool are set to face Palace at Wembley on Sunday in the Community Shield. And ahead of the clash, Eagles boss Glasner reacted to the Reds’ transfer business as he admitted they had sent out an emphatic statement of intent.
“Liverpool have obviously invested heavily this year with Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitike, Frimpong and Kerkez,” he said. “I don’t know if they’ll bring in Isak now too.
“They’ve been playing at this level for years, so I have to say I was a bit surprised that they were so active, but of course it also shows their ambitions.
“I think you can always clearly see a club’s ambitions in the transfer market. And it seems that Liverpool FC isn’t satisfied with just winning the English league; I think they want to win the Champions League.
“And they obviously saw that we needed to add one or two things to the squad, and they made that very clear and explicit early on this summer.”
Meanwhile, looking ahead to the new Premier League season Glasner, picked Liverpool as one of the favourites to win the title – but shared his belief that Manchester City, Arsenal and Chelsea are also all contenders.
“The usual suspects: yes, of course,” he told Sky Sports Austria. “Liverpool will have a say again, City will have a say, Arsenal, who are also, well, it seems like this year the top World Cups have come together.
“Four or five clubs have invested heavily again. If I take City, over €300m in 2025, Liverpool similarly, I think Arsenal not far behind, Chelsea exactly the same, so you can see that they want to win the Premier League, they want to win the Champions League.
“And these teams, yes, Tottenham also has a very good team and has also got a great coach here now. They obviously had a great coach who won the Europa League.
“Man United has also clearly shown their ambitions. But I think, based on the last one or two years, it’s so easy here, not to catch up in one year, but maybe in two or three.
“But I do think that one of Liverpool, City, Arsenal, or Chelsea will then win the title.”
While Liverpool have might spent freely this summer, Glasner had previously hit out at Palace’s own limited business with Walter Benitez (free from PSV Eindhoven) and Borna Sosa (£3m from Ajax) their only new arrivals so far this summer.
“Even though all the players are still here, we haven’t made the most of the transfer window so far,” he told Kronen Zeitung. “I was promised that we would be more active and bring in the new players earlier this year.
“As of now, I have 17 outfield players! I hope we don’t lose any more. If that happens and we get four new ones on deadline day like last year, another false start is possible.”
