John Barnes feels signing new players ‘not a priority’ for champions Liverpool

Former Liverpool winger John Barnes does not believe there is a pressing need for Arne Slot to bolster his Premier League title winners with new signings.

A record-equalling 20th Championship was achieved with a squad which had just one summer addition – the £10million misfit Federico Chiesa.

When Jurgen Klopp ended the club’s 30-year wait for a title in 2020 he bought Diogo Jota, Kostas Tsimikas and Thiago Alcantara for a combined £73million but only the former has been a success, and a qualified one at that because of his chequered injury record.

A season-ending ACL injury to Virgil van Dijk in October, plus other injuries, left Klopp so short of centre-backs that midfielders Jordan Henderson and Fabinho ended up being paired there as the team limped to a third-place finish, 17 points off the pace.

There are no guarantees where fitness is concerned, even if Liverpol’s injury record improved in Slot’s first season, but Van Dijk has already spoken about a “big summer” ahead after extending his stay.

A deal was agreed last year for Valencia’s 24-year-old Georgia goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili to join in July and reinforcements are expected.

However, Barnes believes the squad can challenge again even if out-of-contract right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold does make his expected move to Real Madrid.

“I’m not worried about the summer. I’m a bit old school in thinking the solution to problems is not just signing players,” he told the PA news agency.

“We have won the league comfortably so why do we need to sign players? We have kept the two most important players (Van Dijk and Mohamed Salah). If we lose Trent we’ve got Conor Bradley, that’s fine.

“We don’t need superstars, world-class players all over the pitch as we’ve shown. I’m not concerned about whether we sign players in the summer.

“Other people will catch us but I’d love to stand still because if we stand still we’re still at the top.

“Depending on who goes, who gets injured, you may have to look at that situation. As long as we don’t go backwards.”

Manchester City have already begun their bid to wrestle back the title with the likes of defender Abdukodir Khusanov and forward Omar Marmoush joining in January with more set to follow, while this season’s likely runners-up Arsenal also look like investing significantly.

“Those are the teams who then need to improve. Us signing players doesn’t necessarily mean we will improve so, for me, it is not a priority,” added Barnes, who attended Sunday’s London Marathon as part of Lucozade’s Bring the Energy Zone promotion.

“Teams sometimes get worse because the players don’t work out. Other teams have to take that chance because they need to improve. Do we need to take that chance?”

Regardless, it seems striker Darwin Nunez, a potential club-record signing when he arrived from Benfica nearly three years ago, will leave having struggled to improve under Slot.

The Uruguay international has cut a frustrated figure and has scored just seven times – and only once since his match-winning substitute cameo at Brentford in January – this season having managed just one league start since Boxing Day.

“If Nunez had been playing and we hadn’t been winning (it’s different) but if he’s not playing then why do we need an upgrade on Nunez?” said Barnes.

“You are talking about an upgrade of someone who is on the bench to be on the bench, not to be in the team.”