After a protracted transfer saga that threw a spanner in Newcastle’s Premier League preparations, Alexander Isak has finally signed for Liverpool. The Reds have paid a whopping £125m to acquire the Swedish striker, a fee that could rise to £130m with certain add-ons. The 25-year-old has reportedly signed a six-year contract with his new club, and the Anfield faithful will hope their new man can hit the ground running and become a ready-made replacement for Mohamed Salah (who, to be fair, is still performing very well, despite being 33 years old).
In this article, we’ll take a look at what Isak might offer his new club, and we’ll also examine the other signings during the Reds’ bumper transfer window. After splashing more than £400m on new players, Arne Slot certainly has plenty of options all over the pitch. And the spending would have been even higher had they landed the signature of Crystal Palace defender Marc Guehi on deadline day. Before all that, let’s look at Liverpool’s biggest-money signing.
Will Isak Flourish at Liverpool?
We have completed the transfer of Alexander Isak from Newcastle United on a long-term contract 🙌🔴
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) September 1, 2025
There are many Newcastle fans, and indeed fans of other clubs, who believe Alexander Isak’s behaviour over the summer left a lot to be desired. It’s not the first time a highly rated player has engineered a move away from his club, and it certainly won’t be the last. (Indeed, the same could be argued about one of the players Newcastle signed to replace Isak, Yoane Wissa, who they signed for £55m from Brentford.)
But Liverpool fans will be hoping their new striker can put all that behind him and concentrate on scoring the goals that will help his new club retain their Premier League crown, and perhaps win the Champions League to boot. But is Isak good enough to be the main goalscorer at Liverpool?
Salah has been the Reds’ top (or joint-top) scorer for each of the last eight seasons, with four of those seeing him top (or joint-top) of the Premier League scoring charts. In 2024/25, Salah scored 29 goals in 38 Premier League matches, making him the division’s top marksman (compared to 23 goals in 34 games for Isak, leaving him as the runner-up). The season before, however, Isak scored more than Salah, with 21 goals in 30 league games (Salah got 18 in 32 games). It will be interesting to see how Slot fits both men into the side, and if they could form an effective strike partnership, it would certainly send shivers down the spines of defenders across the land.
There’s also the other new striker to consider, Hugo Ekitike, who is also very handy in front of goal. Dutchman Cody Gapko has recently signed a new long-term contract with the Reds, meanwhile, suggesting he’s very much still within his manager’s plans. Though having several world-class forwards is a problem most managers in the top flight would love to have to grapple with, Slot could have something of a juggling act ahead of him to keep his attackers happy.
Of course, if you splash £125m on a player, you are certainly going to want him to start most of the matches. And given that Isak has proven his goalscoring ability in the Premier League with Newcastle, we expect he will get at least as many goals for his new club (who are likely to provide him with more chances over the course of the season). If it means Salah starts more matches on the bench, Slot will at least have a fantastic, game-changing option to turn to when needed.
Who Else Have Liverpool Signed in the Summer?
The next biggest signing the Reds made in the summer was to acquire attacking midfielder Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen for £100m (a club record at the time). Wirtz hasn’t quite made as positive a start to life at Liverpool as fans would have hoped, but it is early days, and his class is very likely to shine through once he’s settled in.
The aforementioned Ekitike was bought from Eintracht Frankfurt for around £82m, and he might be wondering whether he’s made the right choice since Isak’s arrival. But he’s still just 23 years old, and he could be given enough games to keep him happy enough, depending on his temperament.
Liverpool also strengthened their defence with the signings of Milos Kerkez for around £40m from Bournemouth and Jeremie Frimpong for just under £30m from Bayer Leverkusen. Italian 18-year-old Giovanni Leoni was also brought in (for around £25m), with the centre-back a possible longer-term replacement for Virgil van Dijk or Ibrahima Konate. The more immediate backup option would have been Marc Guehi, but the Reds were unable to get that transfer over the line after Palace were unable to find a suitable replacement in time.
Overall, it’s clear that the Liverpool board are investing heavily in order to maintain their club’s position at the pinnacle of English football. Given that the Reds are sitting pretty at the top of the Premier League after three matches, it appears to be working. And that’s without the side really having played brilliantly. But they are the only Premier League outfit to have won three out of three, and as the new players begin to gel, Slot’s men should get better and could steal a march on their title rivals.
Who Will Be Liverpool’s Leading Scorer in the 2025/26 Season?
Alexander Isak, Mohamed Salah and Hugo Ekitike will be judged on the goals they score this season. Salah has little to prove, but he’ll certainly want to out-score the young upstarts who will be snapping at his heels. Realistically, the race to be Liverpool’s top scorer will be between Isak and Salah, and it’s unlikely Ekitike will be given quite as much game time. And the player who scores more is likely to be the one who avoids injuries. It would be brilliant to see both strikers play an equal number of games to get a fair comparison. If that happens, it really could go either way, but our money would be on Isak to sneak ahead and start to repay that very large transfer fee.