LIV hijack Arsenal transfer after agreeing deal with Gary Neville and Beckham

Liverpool are set to seal a transfer for a teenage prospect ahead of Arsenal despite the Gunners agreeing a fee for the player first this summer, ahead of the Reds

Liverpool have agreed a deal with Salford City over a move for Will Wright. The Reds are set to beat Arsenal to the signing of the 17-year-old forward as they finalise talks with the player's representatives to get the transfer over the line.

The Gunners agreed a deal with Salford earlier in the summer but now look to set their move hijacked. Arsenal were said to have first submitted a bid worth £250,000 plus add-ons for Wright, a figure greater than Liverpool's reported first offer of £100,000 plus add-ons.

But the Merseyside club appear to have returned to win the race to continue a busy summer of transfer business. Wright is said to have favoured staying in the North West.

The teenage made his Salford in January against Manchester City and went on to make two appearances in League Two for the club. Wright has regularly featured for the B team of the club, owned by Gary Neville and David Beckham.

The plan is set to be for Wright to join up with Liverpool ’s under-21s. Arne Slot has already seen seven players signed for his first team so far in his second summer in charge at Anfield however.

Florian Wirtz has been the headline signing as Liverpool broke the British transfer record to land the German international. Slot has also added Hugo Ekitike, Jeremie Frimpong, Milos Kerkez, Armin Pecsi and Freddie Woodman as the club's spending approaches £300million.

Liverpool are also set to see a significant departure in the shape of Luis Diaz. The Colombia international will sign a five-year deal with Bayern Munich after the teams agreed a £65million transfer.

Diaz left Liverpool's pre-season tour to travel to Munich earlier this week after the Merseyside club agreed to the transfer over the weekend. The 28-year-old was left out of the Reds' friendly against AC Milan on Sunday.

Slot has been pleased with the club's work in the market this far. "I think what I’ve also said is I’m really happy with the squad we had," said Slot.

"That’s what we also showed by not bringing in new players last season. Now we won the league, but you can see everywhere around us – in the Premier League but also we play in Europe so we want to achieve things there as well – that all of these teams try to strengthen their squads.

"So, if you do the same as we did last year we will probably not be able to win it again. So, we have to improve – the players that are still here and we’ve tried to bring new energy in but also ‘weapons’, as you called it, and I think the players we’ve brought in have shown already in the few times we have trained together and the games we’ve played. Now let’s wait how Hugo [Ekitike] is going to do that. Really pleased what we did until now, but already really pleased we kept the players that had an extended contract last season."