Henrikh Mkhitarayan – Shakhtar Donetsk to Liverpool
The Reds have been linked with Shakhtar’s Armenian international for some time now and the 24-year-old has been on the verge of a move to Merseyside for what feels like forever.
With doubts over Luis Suarez’s future, Brendan Rodgers has been keen to bring in more attacking options to the club and Mkhitaryan certainly has the right credentials with 42 goals in 103 appearances from just behind the strikers in the Ukraine.
His £22 million fee had been seen as a slight problem, but following the £17 million sale of flop striker Andy Carroll to West Ham United recently has freed up the necessary funds required to take him away from the Ukrainian champions.
Rodger’s had faced competition from the likes of Tottenham Hotspur and Champions League finalists Borussia Dortmund as they continue to look for a replacement for the Bayern Munich bound Mario Gotze, but sources close to the player suggest that he would favour a move to the northwest of England.
Shakhtar had moved to play down the links between themselves and Liverpool, with chief executive, Sergey Palkin, even claiming that there had been no approach from Brendan Rodgers’ men, though sources at the Premier League side have confirmed that they are working on a deal.
Last week Mkhitaryan failed to report to training with Donetsk, sparking fears that he had gone AWOL over the club’s insistence that he stay with them and Rodgers could look to exploit that over the coming weeks with a stronger bargaining position.