Liverpool’s defensive crisis worsened on Tuesday night as Dejan Lovren and Kolo Toure picked up injuries in the Reds’ 1-0 win at Stoke City, leaving Jurgen Klopp with ZERO fit centre-backs at Anfield – Martin Skrtel and Mamadou Sakho were already sidelined.
Fortunately (we use that word very loosely), this injury pileup has occurred at the start of January, just after the transfer window reopened.
Therefore, Klopp, with the backing of the CEO Ian Ayre, should be able to recruit some reinforcements, hopefully before next Wednesday’s crunch Premier League game against Premier League leaders Arsenal.
According to Italian ITK journalist Tancredi Palmeri, who is famous for breaking transfer news, Liverpool have already come to an agreement ‘in principle’ to sign Inter Milan CB Andrea Ranocchia.
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Tancredi claims that Ranocchia, 27, is keen to move away from the San Siro in order to get more first-team football in a bid to earn a place in the Italy squad for Euro 2016.
While Tancredi says that no official bid has yet been made by the Reds, he understands that Inter value the player at €10m, which converts to £7.36m – just over a third of the fee paid to Southampton when Lovren moved to Anfield in 2014.
Klopp is apparently a big fan of 20-time Italy international Ranocchia, having tried to sign him twice during his time in charge at Dortmund.
BOOM! Liverpool have found agreement on principles with Inter’s Ranocchia according to Tuttomercatoweb. Talks ongoing with Inter,no bid yet
— Tancredi Palmeri (@tancredipalmeri) January 6, 2016
Inter putting 10m€ price tag on Ranocchia, who looks for room to get Euro2016 call-ups. Klopp tried twice to sign him at Dortmund
— Tancredi Palmeri (@tancredipalmeri) January 6, 2016
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