The Premier League seems to be split into a few genuinely elite teams and then everyone else, with the difference between survival and relegation often coming down to recruitment.
Ideally a club like Newcastle will identify talent from abroad and develop them before selling them for a big profit, but it sounds like Liverpool might beat them to the signing of Boubakary Sourmare.
As reported by Teamtalk, Newcastle still hope to sign the Lille midfielder despite him turning down a club record move in January, and now it sounds like Liverpool have made their move.
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They indicate that Liverpool have actually opened talks with Lille over a Summer move for the French midfielder, so you have to think that would ruin any chance that Newcastle had.
Despite that, the report still goes on to say that Newcastle are willing to give him a second chance to say yes, and they certainly aren’t throwing the towel in at this point.
The 21 year old has broken through in the past couple of seasons after moving from PSG’s youth team, but he would be more of a project for Liverpool at this point than a regular starter.
It might even make sense to move to a club like Newcastle first before making that step up, but you couldn’t blame him for wanting to move to a huge club as quickly as possible.