Crystal Palace will fight hard to fend off Liverpool’s interest in Cheick Doucoure before the transfer window closes.
Liverpool are in need of a midfield rebuild after Jordan Henderson, Fabinho, Naby Keita, James Milner, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Arthur Melo all departed this summer.
Jurgen Klopp’s side were then beaten to Jude Bellingham by Real Madrid, and also lost out to Chelsea in their pursuit of both Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia as they instead turned attentions to Stuttgart captain Wataru Endo, having already signed both Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai.
They have been interested in Doucoure since midway through last season. It was an excellent first campaign in English football for the 23-year-old, with only Declan Rice making more interceptions than the Malian across the whole Premier League in 2022/23.
Standard Sport revealed last month that Paris Saint-Germain were also keeping tabs on the defensive midfielder, but it is Liverpool who will push hardest to sign him before the September 1 transfer deadline.
The Eagles are thought to value Doucoure at around £70million. Palace will point to the fees paid for midfielders already this summer, with Chelsea set to splash out £58m for Lavia.
Palace, having already lost Wilfried Zaha to Galatasaray this summer and with Michael Olise close to joining Chelsea, are desperate to keep Doucoure, who manager Roy Hodgson wants to field alongside new signing Jefferson Lerma as his double midfield pivot throughout the 2023/24 campaign.
It was only last summer that he joined the south London club from Lens for a fee of £21m. While Doucoure is thought to be open to a move to Liverpool, he is also content at Palace just one year into his five-year contract.
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Another holding midfielder is expected to join Liverpool before the transfer window closes in 15 days’ time. Liverpool are also tracking Fulham’s Joao Palhinha and Nice’s Khephren Thuram in that position.
Menwhile, their interest in Borussia Monchengladbach’s Manu Kone waned after he suffered a knee injury while representing France at the European Under-21 Championship in June.
