Arne Slot lets drop Richard Hughes' massive transfer SECRET

Liverpool can be pretty mysterious in the transfer market. One day, you'll get a notification that we're interested in a player and within a few days Fabrizio Romano will give it the 'Here we go!'

You can always rely on the club conducting their business in secret and it is an approach that makes sure the fans are kept on their toes all the time. When we know what we want, we go out and get it.

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But this should not be confused with rash decision-making. The ground work for a transfer is always conducted in the most tedious and precise ways. We just rarely hear about it. Only at the closing stages of a deal are the details that we are interested in a player ever really released.

The fans are often left stunned by the entire process, and confused as to what really goes on behind the scenes, although Arne Slot has now lifted the lid on just how complex the operation actually is.

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Speaking to Sky Sports, reflecting on how he was initially approached by the club to become the new manager, Slot revealed: "If there's ever a club that did their homework [through scouting] it's Liverpool with all the data and things. I notice this now when we are interested in certain players.

"Julian Ward [technical director] was someone that I know from four or five years ago because I visited Liverpool once when he did the loan and he called me a month before Richard [Hughes] called me and he said 'I'm going through Europe, I'm interest in how certain clubs work, can I come to you your place as well?' I said, 'yeah of course you can'.

"So he was there for one or two days, and looking back on it now he wasn't there for just learning something, he just wanted to know about how I worked and hearing from the staff about how the cooperation was and how we worked together, so again, an example of what they all do to find their best possible player or manager."

As such, while we might not see it, there is a lot of due-diligence that goes on behind the scenes that fans are not often privy to and so a lot of credit has to go to the executive hierarchy for securing Slot.

Liverpool were reportedly interested in a few different coaches after it was announced that Jurgen Klopp would be standing down, and former Sporting coach Ruben Amorim was rumoured, although it is clear that the club only really had one person in mind once they had all the information collated.

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But this insight is actually quite fascinating when looked at through the lens of a potential transfer target as well, because while Liverpool may rarely act on their interest, a lot of players are duly considered and so it must only be when the fine details are looked at that a decision is made.

So while Richard Hughes - the club's sporting director - might well have taken quite a bit of flack this season for just £12.5m in transfers being signed off over the past two transfer windows (not including the £30m agreed for Giorgi Mamardashvili that will be added this summer), he has most likely been spending his time assessing possible targets that could be brought in after the season.

Furthermore, the contracts of Mohamed Salah and Virgil Van Dijk were eventually extended to 2027 and finding agreements between the club and the player and their entourage will not have been easy.

Regardless of how the summer transfer window goes, which will have to be debated when the window opens and then firmly closes shut over two months later, one thing that can be said about the current regime with confidence is that they picked the right man for the job in hiring Slot.

The Dutchman has been a breathe of fresh air on Merseyside and his impressive coaching efforts have taken Liverpool to the top of the Premier League in just his first season, winning the club's 20th domestic league title - tying the all-time record. With him at the helm, everything will be just fine.

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