John Barnes believes Liverpool should sign Ousmane Dembele instead of Jadon Sancho this summer.
The Borussia Dortmund forward has been consistently linked with Liverpool over the last 12 months and that speculation is set to continue ahead of the summer transfer window.
Sancho had looked set to join Manchester United last year only for the Old Trafford club to fail to agree terms with the Bundesliga side.
Reports over the weekend claimed that United had once again been in talks with Dortmund over signing Sancho, but any deal to sign the England winger isn't imminent.
But with Sancho's contract now having only two years left to run it's expected Dortmund will be more likely to agree to a transfer this summer and will lower their demands from a year ago.
Sancho is currently with the England squad in the North East as they continue to prepare for Euro 2020, but Barnes believes Dembele is the better option for his old side.
The 24-year-old was a regular for the Catalan giants last season, making 44 appearances in all competitions, scoring 11 times and claiming five assists.
But Dembele's deal with Barcelona is due to expire next June, meaning that, as it stands, he would be free to sign a pre-contract with a foreign club in January 2022.
The France international recently said that he was in 'no rush' to sign a new contract with Ronald Koeman’s side, as his focus is on the upcoming European Championship.
“First of all, any top player is going to be linked with the biggest clubs, whether that’s Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United, Real Madrid or Barcelona. So this whole idea of being linked with a club means nothing,” Barnes told BettingOdds.com.
“You just have to look at the player that’s available, the amount he’s going to cost and the clubs that can afford him, then you can put two and two together and normally you’d get six or seven.
“As far as Jadon Sancho is concerned, out of the clubs rumoured to be interested in him I’d say that Manchester United is probably the best destination for him.
“At Liverpool I’d prefer a much more direct player. Jadon is very skilful and very tricky, but I believe that Ousmane Dembele would suit Liverpool out of all the potentially available players in that position.
“Jadon Sancho is going to have to pick the club that suits his football best rather than the stature of the club. His teammate Erling Haaland has the same problem.
“Out of those clubs, then Manchester United will be best suited to Jadon Sancho. Are they interested? Does he want to go there? I don’t know.”
