Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp is reportedly keen to see the club fork out as much as £85million to break their transfer record again with the signing of Ousmane Dembele.
The Barcelona forward looks increasingly likely to be on the move away from the Nou Camp in the near future after a difficult start to life at the club.
Dembele joined from Borussia Dortmund last season with the reputation of being one of Europe’s best young players, but his form hasn’t really taken off from there.
Liverpool, however, look ready to gamble on him and pay a big fee of £85m to bring the 21-year-old to Anfield, eclipsing the club’s current transfer record fee of £75m paid for Virgil van Dijk last January, according to the Sun.
It remains to be seen if that would really be money well spent by LFC, who are already pretty well-stocked up front.
Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane are as good a front three as anything in Europe right now, while Xherdan Shaqiri and Daniel Sturridge are also decent backup options.
Dembele also has a patchy disciplinary record which has tarnished his reputation in his short career so far.
As noted by the Sun, the France international forced his way out of Dortmund to Barca – including trashing the house he was renting from Klopp in Germany at the time.
The report also notes how Dembele has had punctuality problems at Barcelona, so it may be unwise for Liverpool to bring in a troublesome character to disrupt what looks a good harmony and team spirit in their current squad.