Stan Collymore believes Liverpool could form a centre-back partnership equal to Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic by signing Kalidou Koulibaly.
The Napoli defender has been heavily sought-after by Manchester City who appear to have now walked away from a potential deal after signing Ruben Dias for £65.2million.
Liverpool are unlikely to dip back into the market this summer, despite selling Dejan Lovren to Zenit St Petersburg.
Jurgen Klopp is comfortable with Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez and Joel Matip as his three senior options in that role, with Fabinho able to fill in as he did against Chelsea.
On Koulibaly, Collymore told The People: “The idea of Kalidou Koulibaly partnering Virgil van Dijk in Liverpool’s central defence has me so excited that I reckon it could be the best pairing since Manchester United ’s Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic.
“It genuinely could be up there with the best partnerships there have ever been in the game and if Sadio Mane’s text messages to his compatriot have convinced him to sign for the Reds, then it’s game over for all their title rivals.”
Manchester City were pipped to the post for Van Dijk by Liverpool and have since spent £164million on centre-backs after completing the signing of Dias.
Liverpool, by contrast, haven't made any further additions but boasted the best defensive record in the 2019/20 campaign.
Spending upwards of £60million on Koulibaly at 29 years old after conceding the least amount of goals in the division would be a significant departure from the highly successful transfer strategy Liverpool have adopted in recent years.
Koulibaly's lack of experience in English football would also make the deal a suprising transfer and for such a high fee, considering the financial pressures added by COVID-19, it's a deal Liverpool, unlike Man City, would be unlikely to entertain.
