Life after Salah: the scale of the summer job facing Arne Slot and Liverpool
It is worth saying out loud, because the scale of it gets lost in the day-to-day churn of transfer gossip. Mohamed Salah is leaving Liverpool on a free in the summer. Andy Robertson is out of contract and heading the same way. The team that beat Tottenham in the 2019 Champions League final will, by August, have just two starters left: Alisson and Virgil van Dijk. That is not a tweak. That is a rebuild.
Salah’s exit was confirmed by Liverpool on 24 March. The relationship with Arne Slot had been strained for months, with the forward publicly unhappy about being used as a scapegoat for the autumn slump, and by the time the club made it official, the writing was on the wall. What comes next for him is still open. The Saudi Pro League is the bookmakers’ favourite, with Al-Ittihad and Al-Hilal both in the mix, and MLS is the other side of the coin. Europe has not been ruled out either.
Slot’s transfer model, tested
Liverpool’s owners have said they intend to stick with Slot. Slot, in turn, has said the club’s model is “completely clear” and that the plan is not to chase big-name replacements. The polite translation of that is: do not expect a 33-year-old marquee signing walking in to do a Salah impression. The less polite translation is that Liverpool will sell to buy again, possibly as many as nine first-team players by the time the window shuts.
On the winger front, reporting from several outlets has Liverpool working off a shortlist that includes Bazoumana Toure at Hoffenheim, Yan Diomande at RB Leipzig, Yankuba Minteh at Brighton and, at the glossier end, Michael Olise at Bayern. The spread is telling. Liverpool are not fixed on a single type. Some of these are speed options for Salah’s right-wing spot, some are left-wing cover for the Luis Diaz gap that never really got filled. The number being briefed is “two wingers”, and nobody who has watched Liverpool in April is going to argue with that.
The left-back problem
Robertson going is its own quiet disaster. Liverpool signed Milos Kerkez from Bournemouth in summer 2025 to cover the Robertson role, but with Robertson now leaving they will need a backup left-back this window. Alejandro Balde is the name being floated most seriously. He is 22, attack-minded, and would fit Slot’s desire to get younger and more dynamic down the flanks. Whether Barcelona, with their own financial puzzles, actually let him go is another question entirely.
Is Slot the right man to do this?
Here is the uncomfortable bit. Slot was brought in to replace a legend and has done a reasonable job, but no Champions League place next season would change the temperature around him quickly. There are already reports of a split at boardroom level over his future, with one faction pushing for stability and another quietly wondering whether a reset needs to go further than the playing staff.
If Liverpool get the recruitment right, this rebuild could be the moment Slot stamps his own identity on the squad rather than managing the one he inherited. If they get it wrong, they will be having a very different conversation in October. Either way, the summer that is about to start is the one that defines his Anfield stay.
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