Liverpool clear to agree signing of £64.6million a year star – Reports
If reports in the media are anything to go by then Liverpool are clear to agree the signing of Kylian Mbappe, who has turned down a move to Real Madrid.
Reports in France have indicated that the Reds have been in consistent contact with and will hold talks soon to convince the player to move to Anfield.
News – Liverpool ready to move with priority signing of £51.6m star this month – Report
According to The Times, Mbappe has rejected a move to the Los Blancos and is now open to joining a Premier League side.
The Spanish giants set a deadline of January 15 to agree a pre-contract with the Les Bleus star but he does not like the pressure and will make his decision when he wants.
The decision to snub the Santiago Bernabeu outfit have now put Liverpool in pole position to secure the signing of the 25-year-old superstar.
As per The Times, Mbappe is a confirmed admirer of Klopp’s style of play at Anfield. The German manager is himself a huge fan of the playmaker.
The Merseyisders may be in the clear but the real question is, can they really afford to complete the signing?
According to The Athletic, the former Monaco man earns a base salary of net £64.6million a year (75 million euros).
Liverpool will have to break their pay structure to have any chance of getting the Frenchman. In doing so, the may also end up breaking the dressing room harmony under Klopp.
It must be remembered that Klopp may have to replace Salah soon and Mbappe is just one of the very few players who are actually good enough to take the Egyptian’s place.
For the latest update on the transfer saga, watch this space.
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Mauricio Pochettino hasn’t ruled out embarrassing transfer that would confirm Liverpool reality
Mauricio Pochettino didn’t give much away when asked about a potential Chelsea transfer at the weekend, but Liverpool could end up having the last laugh.
Remember when Chelsea won the transfer window? Blues fans took great joy in lauding it over Liverpool after the Stamford Bridge club not only convinced Moisés Caicedo to turn down a move to Anfield and move to London, but also stole Roméo Lavia away from the Reds’ noses, all for the measly sum of around $220m (£173m/€201m).
And what have been the fruits of that labor? Well, 10th in the Premier League, 17 points off Liverpool who lead the way, and still 12 points off just a top-four finish.
It would be quite the turnaround if Chelsea were to overhaul the Reds now, and they’ll need a lot more from Caicedo and Lavia to do that. The pair haven’t exactly set the league alight this year — in fact, the latter has only made one appearance for the Blues so far.
There can’t be any doubt now who the real winners have been out of Liverpool and Chelsea then. The Reds though might not have had their last laugh yet.
As reports swirl that Jordan Henderson wants a move back to the Premier League (as per the Daily Mail), just six months after leaving Liverpool for Saudi Arabia, Chelsea is one of the clubs being touted as a possible destination. Mauricio Pochettino was even asked about the possibility of the Blues signing the 33-year-old, and he didn’t exactly bat away the suggestion.
“To be honest we didn’t talk about names,” Pochettino said (via football.london). “At the moment we are not talking about bringing players. I saw Behdad [Eghbali] here in the manager’s room with Paul [Winstanley] and Laurence [Stewart]. I think tomorrow we are going to have a chat because we will be in the training ground.
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“We didn’t talk about names or talk about position, we didn’t talk to bring players. For now, we are focusing on players like Andrey Santos to see what we are going to do.”
It’s neither a yes nor a no from Pochettino really. It was certainly nowhere near as clear as Jürgen Klopp’s response when asked about Henderson potentially returning to Anfield: that was a flat refusal.
Chelsea has been mercilessly mocked for its transfer dealings under Todd Boehly’s ownership, and with good reason in fairness. Spending over $1bn on players in such a short space of time, only to go from a Champions League side and title contender to a side struggling to break into the top half of the table takes some spectacularly bad planning.
Signing Henderson though would be on another level of poor business. Imagine lauding it over Liverpool six months ago, only to turn to a 33-year-old who left Anfield because he had fallen so far down the pecking order, and has since been playing in a far inferior league. It wouldn’t exactly be a glowing endorsement of the options currently at Chelsea.
The Reds have now well and truly moved on from Henderson after their successful midfield rebuild last summer. If the former Liverpool captain does end up at Stamford Bridge, that tells you all you need to know about who really won that transfer window, and it will be another layer of irrefutable proof.
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