Sergio Ramos is firmly “on the wane” according to former Liverpool defender Steve Nicol.
And when asked whether his former club should ever consider the Spain captain as a potential signing, he declared: "Only if they get desperate”.
The Reds are monitoring the January transfer market for defensive reinforcements, having lost both Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez - their first-choice centre-back pairing - to long-term injury.
Various names, such as Schalke’s Ozan Kabak and RB Leipzig’s Dayot Upamecano have been mooted.
And the latter has also been linked with Real Madrid for a possible summer move.
Ramos, 34, has been at Madrid for the last 15 years, and while both parties are keen to extend his stay with a new deal, he can begin talking to other clubs about a potential free transfer in January.
So when ESPN pundit Nicol was questioned as to whether the World Cup winner could offer Liverpool a solution, he admitted he was far from convinced.
“I don't wish to make this sound bad but it depends how desperate they are.
“Listen, if Virgil van Dijk has a setback and it's going to take even longer, if Joe Gomez is struggling, you'd rather go for someone like Upamecano, at 21, who you're going to have for a decade. It's kind of a no-brainer.
“If you can't get him, then you kind of start going down the list.
“Clearly, you want a younger player who is going to be there for some time. You really want to avoid stop-gaps, unless you're in a real hole.
“So, listen, if they got Ramos it would only be for a couple of seasons. [But] I think he's on the wane a little. It wouldn't be the worst signing ever, he would do a job.”
Ramos, with big wages and little sell on value due to his age, doesn’t exactly fit Liverpool’s transfer strategy anyway.
But Paris Saint-Germain are reportedly interested in taking him to France, should he elect to leave the Spanish capital.
However, the most likely course of occasion remains that he re-signs to continue under Zinedine Zidane, who is also eager to hand Raphael Varane a new deal too, with the Frenchman having just over 18 months left on his contract.
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