Liverpool chairman Tom Werner has shed light on the club’s record-breaking summer spending spree, which saw them splash out a staggering £450million on new talent, including the marquee signing of Alexander Isak from Newcastle United for £125m. And he was also grilled on the possibility of bringing Marc Guehi to Anfield in the January transfer window.

Isak made his debut in Liverpool‘s thrilling 3-2 Champions League victory over Atletico Madrid, alongside other high-profile signings such as Florian Wirtz (£116m), Jeremie Frimpong (£29m), Hugo Ekitike (£79m) and Milos Kerkez (£40m), with Giorgi Mamardashvili (£29m) and Giovanni Leoni (£26m) also named on the bench. Despite the hefty expenditure, Werner pointed out that Liverpool managed to recoup more than half of their outlay through player sales.

He confessed that past experiences had taught the Reds the importance of refreshing their squad to boost their chances of retaining the Premier League title. “The fact of the matter is it’s going to be very difficult,” he admitted. “As much as all the pundits are saying we are going to win the league this year, you can see from our first four matches how competitive the league is.

“We have been resilient, we have been fortunate. The one thing I have learned, and we are relatively humble and modest about this, is we were very enthusiastic about changing the squad because it’s very difficult to repeat.

“There was a great intention to bring in new players, obviously to get better. As much as it has been talked about how much our spend was this year, we have been able to spend to the degree that we did so because we also sold a lot of players.

“One of the most encouraging things about that is we haven’t clicked yet and I don’t expect us to click right now. I do think part of what we have learned is that you can’t just bring the same squad back. You need to bring in a new energy and new ideas.”

Liverpool‘s expenditure could have risen even higher had a £35m deal for England international centre-back Marc Guehi not collapsed at the eleventh hour, with Crystal Palace unable to secure a suitable replacement in time.

When quizzed about whether Guehi might get a January switch to Liverpool, Werner sidestepped the question entirely, quipping to presenter Rebecca Lowe: “I’m sorry Rebecca, you went cloudy on me there!”

Reflecting firther on the pursuit of Isak and Guehi, Werner told the It’s Called Soccer podcast: “In the Newcastle situation, obviously their club needed to find a replacement.

“We thought we had a terrific financial offer for them. But he did have a contract that lasted for three more years. I guess our feeling was we had signed Ekitike to be a striker and felt if it works then that would be great, and if it doesn’t work there’d be another option somewhere down the road.

“I didn’t know any more than the news media. I thought we were going to get the defender from Crystal Palace! But I understood it. They started the season well, and their chairman said ‘we can’t afford to lose him’.

“It takes so much to win and it’s not due to the talents of any one player. I think Isak will be terrific but he’s not the only striker in the world.”