Paul Gorst is the Liverpool ECHO's Liverpool FC correspondent and brings readers the inside track on all matters Anfield day in, day out. Now into his seventh season in the role, Paul follows the Reds home and away, wherever they play - including pre season. He brings you all the latest Liverpool news first each day, plus exclusive interviews and insightful, independent analysis. A journalist with over a decade's worth of experience, he has worked at the ECHO since 2016.

So, did Liverpool 'win' this summer's transfer window then? With around £445m spent, it was certainly a historic one and supporters will no doubt be drooling on the other side of the international break about the possibilities of the season ahead under Arne Slot.

It started with a bang when Florian Wirtz told Manchester City and Bayern Munich that the Premier League champions had won the race for his signature before his team-mate Jeremie Frimpong was confirmed as a Reds player at the beginning of June.

After £29m Frimpong and £116m Wirtz were added to the ranks, then it was Milos Kerkez's turn at £40m from Bournemouth, while goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili arrived a year after his £29m agreement with Valencia was struck.

Armin Pecsi and Freddie Woodman were added to the goalkeeping department to provide cover, before a £79m deal was agreed with Eintracht Frankfurt for Hugo Ekitike.

Giovanni Leoni also signed from Parma for £26m to add some cover at centre-half and there are high hopes for the 18-year-old defender, who is included in the Italy squad for the upcoming international break.

And finally, on transfer deadline day, the biggest deal of all was struck as Alexander Isak joined for a British record £125m to bring an end to a summer of speculation and join on a six-year deal.

Departures-wise, Liverpool sold Trent Alexander-Arnold, Caoimhin Kelleher, Luis Diaz, Darwin Nunez, Jarell Quansah, Ben Doak, Tyler Morton and Nat Phillips, while Kostas Tsimikas and Harvey Elliott have been sent on loan, the latter with an obligation for Aston Villa to make permanent at £35m.

Here, the ECHO's dedicated Liverpool writers Ian Doyle and Paul Gorst rate the Reds' window as a historic spend is supplemented by a huge return.

In terms of addressing the positions Liverpool needed to, they certainly did that early doors by confirming Jeremie Frimpong as Trent Alexander-Arnold's successor on the same day back on June 1. That feels along time ago now, doesn't it?

Elsewhere, they needed to refresh and reconfigure their frontline department. It was clear Darwin Nunez was out of favour and having harboured no intention to offer Luis Diaz a new contract, it was also time to sell the Colombian given he was agitating to leave.

So Hugo Ekitike and Alexander Isak arriving for around £204m adds some serious firepower to a frontline already in possession of Mohamed Salah, Cody Gakpo and Federico Chiesa, who looks sharper in recent weeks than he did all last season.

The sales of Nunez and Diaz - to Al Hilal and Bayern Munich respectively, for fees of £46m and £65m - means the mega-money additions of Ekitike and Isak in particular have been offset by the departures of the two South Americans by more than half. And while Diaz had an excellent campaign for the Reds last term, it would appear as though there has been a significant upgrade there.

Milos Kerkez will provide Liverpool with a left-back for the long-term and Andy Robertson will give the Hungary international some real quality competition on that side of the pitch this term.

Giovanni Leoni is one for the future and it will be interesting to see how he develops this term. At the age of 18, the teenager is now a fully-fledged Italy international having been given the call-up this month.

The capture of Wirtz is one that few probably anticipated at the end of last season and the jewel of Germany will be a world-class signing when he gets up to the pace and power of the Premier League. The gifted attacking midfielder showed flashes in the second half against Arsenal and will get better as the weeks and months go on.

The sale of Harvey Elliott at £35m, to be paid at the end of his Aston Villa loan, feels like he has been undersold somewhat but like Jarell Quansah - who joined Bayer Leverkusen for the same fee - there is a buy-back clause negotiated into those terms. The £10m fee received from Real Madrid for Trent Alexander-Arnold, who had less than a month left on his Anfield contract at the time, was a superb bit of business, all things considered.

The fee rising to £18m for Caoimhin Kelleher was something of a surprise given the Ireland international's body of work as back-up at Anfield, but it would have been harsh to have priced the goalkeeper out of a move for the second successive summer, especially with Mamardashvili arriving as high-quality competition for Alisson Becker.

The £15m pocketed for Tyler Morton from Lyon was a decent sum, while £25m for Ben Doak, after just 10 Reds appearances, was a huge boost to the coffers. Nat Phillips finally got his permanent also for £3m to West Brom.

Liverpool are able to re-sign Quansah for £60m if he kicks on at Leverkusen and the contract he would sign if he returns to Anfield has already been agreed as part of that exit from Merseyside. That could potentially be a smart bit of business in the grand scheme.

To truly assess Liverpool's incomings and outgoings though, we have to go back to April - when Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk ended months and months of intense debate by signing on for two more years apiece. Both will once more be integral to a side with designs on winning the Premier League and the Champions League.

The 11th hour collapse of Marc Guehi's transfer from Crystal Palace denies Liverpool top marks and the figure for Elliott's Villa exit does not reflect his true quality but overall, it has the potential to become the most impressive window of the 21st century at Anfield. 9/10.

Let's not beat about the bush here. Nobody has any idea who has won this summer's transfer window, and nor will they until several years down the line.

After all, who could have guessed that in 2023, while Chelsea splashed out more than £400m, it would have been Liverpool's overhaul of the midfield that ended up proving pivotal in winning the title just two years later?

That doesn't mean a verdict cannot be passed on the business from the Reds over the last few months. And rarely has there been more excitement in the transfer window for supporters.

Much of the business has been understandable, with a new right-back required, the passage of time meaning a refresh at left-back, an overhaul of the goalkeeping options with a long-serving number two branching out elsewhere and, for far more tragic reasons, the need to sign a new forward.

But there have been some big calls made by Liverpool, not least allowing Luis Diaz, Jarell Quansah and, to a lesser extent, Harvey Elliott to leave.

And then there is the fact the Reds twice broke their club record by splashing out £100m-plus on Florian Wirtz and later Alexander Isak.

For all that, it cannot be understated how much of a blow it was to lose Trent Alexander-Arnold, regardless of the £8.5m Liverpool ended up receiving for a player who could have left for nothing a month later.

Alexander-Arnold has been one of the mainstays of the team that swept the honours board under Jurgen Klopp and then romped to the title with Arne Slot last season.

Liverpool, though, have done as much as they could - and then some - to change the creative approach of the team. Capturing Marc Guehi would have been the icing on the cake, although the Crystal Palace man will quite possibly be on his way in January.

With a net spend in excess of £220m it hasn't been cheap, although £35m of income is guaranteed next summer from Elliott.

But since winning the title in 2020, Liverpool are running at an average of around £66m net spend per close season transfer window, which compares favourably to the likes of Tottenham Hotspur (£95m), Arsenal (£112m) and Manchester United (£115m).

Liverpool knew this would be a big window and have duly gone big. Even allowing for the possibility of the occasional misfire, it means they won't have to overly spend for the next few years. Job very well done, then. 9/10.