Arne Slot offers revealing update on Liverpool's January transfer window plans amid talk of interest in Marc Guehi and Antoine Semenyo

Despite smashing transfer records over the summer to sign the likes of Alexander Isak from Newcastle United and Florian Wirtz from Bayern Leverkusen for a combined £241m ($322m), Liverpool tried and failed to sign Palace captain Guehi on transfer deadline day. Not long after a fee of around £35m ($47m) had been struck, the Eagles pulled the plug on the deal at the eleventh hour as they were unable to find a defensive replacement. At the time, manager Slot said it was a "pity" the move didn't go through. 

"It would be ridiculous if I were to deny we were close to signing him. That is so out in the open," he admitted in September. "These things happen in football. We would have liked to have signed him, of course. If we feel we can strengthen the team, we never hesitate to do so. It's not like all of a sudden we don't have options in that position. It's a pity, not only for us but also for the player, I think. But he's in a good place, playing for Palace, where he won the Charity Shield and the FA Cup with a very good manager as well.  Let's see what the future brings for him and for us."

In October, Palace head coach Oliver Glasner confirmed Guehi would not sign a new contract, and he would leave Selhurst Park next year when his current deal expires. 

"I think Marc has already told us that he doesn't sign a new contract, so he will leave next year," said the Austrian. "The club wanted [him to stay]. They offered Marc a new contract. But he said, 'No, I want to make something different'. And that's normal. And for us, it's how we can deal with this situation? [What] is the best way to get this next step done? And that's all about how we are talking together."

Both Guehi and Semenyo remain targets for Liverpool, with the latter expected to leave Bournemouth in January, reports Fabrizio Romano. He adds that the 25-year-old is inching towards a Cherries exit, with Manchester United and Manchester City both enquiring about him and his £65m ($87m) release clause - which is active until around January 10.  

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On Friday, former Feyenoord boss Slot insisted Liverpool, who have been without full-backs Jeremie Frimpong and Conor Bradley for spells of the season, don't have "unlimited" funds and there is no guarantee they will splash the cash next month.

"The outside world wants to believe we have unlimited money but that is not true," he said. "You insiders know – and you are the only ones because the outside world only talks about our spending – what we have brought in (money) to spend (referring to how Liverpool balanced out their big spend by bringing in more than £200m/$267m in player sales). That is the way we work over here. You then have to accept that in certain games during a season, you are short of a right full back. But we are still able to win. I fully believe in that way of working, by the way."

With Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate Liverpool's only fit centre-backs, many have argued they need to sign a new defender. But Slot, who is also without the sidelined Joe Gomez, pointed out that they spent around £25m on Giovanni Leoni, who is out for the season with a knee injury. 

Asked if he would sign a defender as a Christmas present, he replied: "The injury of Giovanni has quite a lot of impact. If you have four centre backs for the season, two right and two left backs with Wata (Endo) and Ryan (Gravenberch) who can help you out, but then you have an ACL injury, that is not very helpful. It is tough. And unfortunately Joe (Gomez) is now out of the squad again tomorrow. In a season, these moments for most teams happen. Some teams have so many (options) but most other teams do not. This is our way of working at Liverpool."