Arne Slot's 'stupid' admission speaks volumes as Liverpool enter Florian Wirtz transfer talks

Liverpool have entered negotiations with Bayer Leverkusen over – but has admitted they are not sure they can land him. The Reds have already agreed a deal with Leverkusen and have now made a bold move for Wirtz.

The 22-year-old attacking midfielder has 16 goals and 15 assists for Leverkusen this season and has been the stand-out player in the Bundesliga for two years. He , but the German giants now believe he will instead join .

Wirtz has already visited the north west of England to scout out possible places to live and is understood to be keen on the . All of these things sound promising for Liverpool, but Slot’s comments this week should temper expectations, with lots of things yet to be decided.

– a figure that put off – and it will take a record Premier League fee for Liverpool to sign him, eclipsing the £107m paid for Enzo Fernandez two summers ago.

The Reds are flush with cash, having signed just one player last summer, but wanting to sign players and actually signing them are two very different things, as Slot explained this week.

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“City will probably strengthen the squad again. If the rumours are correct, is planning the same, so it would be stupid if we are not looking at trying to strengthen the squad as well,” he told .

“Again, I've said it many times, it's not that easy because this team has already won the league. So to find players that can strengthen us – that might not be that difficult – because there are certain players in the where I think, 'if they would come, it would be nice'.

“But they're also playing at clubs where they don't want to leave. So there are not many that can strengthen us, but the few that are out there, we will try to get them. At this moment of time we're not sure if that's possible.”

HAVE YOUR SAY! Is Florian Wirtz worth £120million? .

The fact Liverpool have already dealt with Leverkusen over a £29.5m transfer is promising, while Wirtz also seems keen to follow in the footsteps of his team-mate. He told last month that he was "definitely keen" to move on in the near future in order to "experience something new".

Liverpool have the pulling power that winning the Premier League brings and have proven to be effective operators in the transfer market in the past. However, there are no guarantees that Wirtz will leave Leverkusen, with his parents acting as his agents and keen to guard against any hasty moves.

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