Liverpool will now have to endure a market-watching brief after spending £185 million in June alone to make the 2025 summer window the costliest at Anfield ever. With the current state of affairs casting doubt on the futures of players like Darwin Nunez, Andy Robertson, and possibly Harvey Elliott, attention will shift to outgoing.
Additionally, there may be more deck chair rearranging because the window itself is still more than two months away from closing.
Serie A champions Napoli showed interest in Nunez this month, and Liverpool is now awaiting a formal approach. In January, the Uruguayan international was targeted by Saudi Pro League teams, and the Reds were contacted by middlemen representing the Gulf state’s teams, only to be turned down.
As the Premier League leaders sought a 20th domestic championship at the time, Arne Slot wanted to keep everyone on deck. Nunez only started one league game in 2025, against doomed Southampton, so he didn’t play a major part in the season’s eventual success, but it turned out to be the right move to keep him on board.
However, aside from his late January appearance at Brentford, Nunez’s contributions waned, and in early March he scored his final goal against Southampton.
Diogo Jota missed four months of Premier League action due to an upper body injury sustained against Chelsea on October 20. During this time, Luis Diaz was preferred to start at the front of the line.
At this point, the only true mysteries are how much Napoli is willing to pay and when they will make their move. A parting of ways seems inevitable. The 25-year-old striker is rumored to be eager to join Antonio Conte’s team in Naples.
Given that the Nigerian international spent the previous season on loan at Galatasaray, the Serie A winners might be forced to take action once Victor Osimhen’s future is decided. Similar to Nunez, the striker has been connected to Saudi Pro League teams.
It has been emphasized that if Nunez departs, the Premier League winners won’t necessarily look to sign another center-forward because his lack of starts the previous season is thought to be the reason why there will be no immediate panic to bring in someone to take his No.9 squad number.
Slot and sporting director Richard Hughes are at ease with the situation, having completed the majority of their transfer work over two weeks before the players return for preseason training. Any amount paid for Nunez will increase the transfer fund, but since they have already signed Florian Wirtz, Milos Kerkez, and Jeremie Frimpong—their top three targets this summer—a Plan B or C won’t be added.
This is the internal perspective on Jarell Quansah’s upcoming sale as he nears a £35 million deal with Bayer Leverkusen, which is anticipated to be finalized following England’s European Under-21 Championship final with Germany on Saturday. The same reasoning holds true for a Nunez.
This leads us to Alexander Isak, who is generally considered Liverpool’s “dream” acquisition down the middle of their attack this window.
With three years remaining on his current contract, Newcastle United is not in a rush to sell last season’s top scorer, and there is no imminent fear that the player’s time at St. James’ Park is running out. This is because the team has qualified for the Champions League once again.
After Isak’s outstanding play last season, in which he scored 23 goals to help the Magpies finish in the top five and lead them to their first domestic trophy in 70 years, Eddie Howe is eager to sign him to new terms.
According to reports, Isak makes about £130,000 per week, with bonuses increasing for accomplishments like qualifying for Europe. However, Newcastle wants to make the former Real Sociedad star one of their highest paid players, joining Sandro Tonali, Bruno Guimaraes, and Anthony Gordon, who each reportedly earn £150,000.
“Alex, his representatives, and the football club will undoubtedly continue to have discussions,” Howe was cited as saying in October. “With all of our top players, one of the challenges is to keep the club moving forward. Although it’s very easy to talk about ambition, we must actually demonstrate it.
However, the player must also perform at that level. The challenge is always thrown back, so if he is claiming to have lofty goals, he must be performing well on the field.
However, the striker is still bound by the same conditions eight months after Howe described the plans for negotiations between Isak’s representatives and the Magpies themselves.
Liverpool wouldn’t recoil at those kinds of numbers. The Reds have one of the highest wage bills in the league, second only to Manchester City, at £386.1 million according to their most recent statistics.
In March, the ECHO predicted that Liverpool’s salary bill, including bonus payments related to the Premier League title victory, might surpass £400 million for the first time in 2024–2025.
However, if there is any encouragement later this summer, they are unlikely to let that deter them from pursuing Isak. The Premier League champions would have no trouble raising the kind of offer that would make the 25-year-old Tyneside’s highest earner.
Having only signed new contracts for Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah in April following months of intense speculation about the two players and Trent Alexander-Arnold, who left this month to sign a £10 million deal with Real Madrid 30 days before he walked away as a free agent, the Reds are well aware of how long the complexities of a new contract for a top earner can take.
According to this week’s national media reports, Newcastle is frustrated that they haven’t made any progress toward their long-standing summer goals. As July draws near, agreements for Brighton’s Joao Pedro and Burnley goalkeeper James Trafford have not yet been finalized, and an offer for Nottingham Forest’s Anthony Elanga was rejected.
Although the manager and his namesake Andy Howe, the Magpies’ assistant head of recruitment, are in charge of handling transfers due to the impending departures of chief executive Darren Eales and sporting director Paul Mitchell at Newcastle, which will be formally announced at the end of June, progress has not yet been made on either Elanga or Trafford.
Nuno Espirito Santo is eager to keep the former Manchester United winger for the forthcoming European season, and Forest reportedly turned down a £45 million offer for Elanga this week. However, reports published in The Chronicle on Friday have given a more positive picture of the pursuit of Pedro, a Brazil international, with the clubs currently engaged in advanced negotiations.
Although Liverpool may seem hesitant to break through that barrier for a second time in as many weeks following the club-record £116 million deal for Wirtz last week, the impending departure of Quansah at £35 million and the possible exit of Nunez could earn the Reds the majority of that fee. A fee well north of £100 million has been floated for Isak.
Additionally, Liverpool had spent about £12 million on transfers in the previous two years before this month, including the August 2024 addition of Federico Chiesa from Juventus. Sales of Caoimhin Kelleher, Sepp van den Berg, Fabio Carvalho, and Alexander-Arnold have brought in about £75 million during that time.
When the Profit and Sustainability Regulations reopen next month, the Reds will continue to closely monitor the situation in the North East, and any encouragement that a deal can be reached could bring Hughes and company to the negotiating table. But for the time being, it’s a waiting game.