Liverpool are set to target alternatives in midfield after the blow of being beaten to both Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia by rivals Chelsea.
According to Ben Jacobs in the latest edition of his weekly exclusive CaughtOffside column, one option could be Ryan Gravenberch, who remains open to the prospect of moving to Anfield.
The issue remains, however, whether or not Bayern Munich will sell the Netherlands international, so there are some other names on Liverpool’s list as well.
Jacobs mentioned the links with Real Madrid’s Aurelien Tchouameni, though he made it clear he doesn’t see much substance to them, while Fluminense youngster Andre could be another option, even if his current club would ideally keep him for a bit longer.
“Chelsea have signed Moises Caicedo for a £100+15m package from Brighton and in doing so landed their top summer target,” Jacobs wrote on Substack.
“It was an incredible saga. Liverpool tried to hijack the deal, successfully bidding £111m, but Caicedo made it clear he wanted to wait for Chelsea, who reached an agreement over the weekend.
“Liverpool did all they could, but when a player has their heart set on one club it’s hard to change their mind. There has been a feeling all summer that Chelsea would eventually pay what it takes having had multiple bids for Caicedo rejected.”
He added: “Chelsea are also on the brink of signing Romeo Lavia from Southampton, another Liverpool target.
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“As a result I expect Liverpool to be busy between now and when the window shuts. Real Madrid don’t want to sell Aurelien Tchouameni, and the player doesn’t want to leave, so I don’t see too much substance in those links.
“Andre is another possibility at Fluminense, but the Brazilian club have always hoped to keep hold of him until 2024.
“Ryan Gravenberch at Bayern is a long-standing target as well. The player is open to the move. It’s just a case of whether Bayern will sell.”
Gravenberch is certainly a tempting option, and it’s fair to say it makes sense that he’s not ruling out leaving Bayern after a difficult spell since moving there from Ajax, where he’d been regarded as a real wonderkid.
The 21-year-old hasn’t been as much of a regular at Bayern, but one imagines he’d surely go straight into Liverpool’s starting XI to help them replace departing stars like Jordan Henderson, Fabinho, Naby Keita, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and James Milner.
I am glad the two now Chelsea players are not coming to Liverpool.I can understand caicedo., because he has loved Chelsea since he was a child. Lavia has been enticed and promised better things at Chelsea which at nineteen sounds to me as though he has not yet got any integrity. I was really upset about the two of them making us look as though we were a rotten club. However we still have some time to get midfielders.
our transfer business are being done slowly which is bad compared to our opponents and our negotiations are poor coz we have lost 2 players in less than two days yet we are really craving for deep 6 number.
So much for Chelsea being allowed to spend maximum of 105million this window