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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Dom Smith

Liverpool set to miss out on Cheick Doucoure as Crystal Palace hold firm over £70m price tag

Crystal Palace are increasingly likely to keep hold of Cheick Doucoure, with Liverpool put off by Palace’s £70 million valuation of the player.

Liverpool and Paris Saint-Germain both approached Palace earlier this summer, registering their interest in the 23-year-old defensive midfielder who joined the Eagles last year from Lens for an initial £21m.

PSG’s enquiry, first revealed by Standard Sport, was never followed up, but Liverpool have remained interested in the player throughout the transfer window.

Liverpool lost out to Chelsea in their attempts to sign Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia as replacements for Jordan Henderson and Fabinho, who both left the Reds this summer in lucrative moves to Saudi Arabia.

Standard Sport now understands that Jurgen Klopp’s side have no intention of submitting a formal bid for Mali international Doucoure, who Palace placed a £70m valuation on last month in an attempt to fend off interest.

Doucoure was left out of Palace’s squad for Tuesday’s 4-2 win over Plymouth Argyle in the Carabao Cup, though that decision by Roy Hodgson was unrelated to his transfer future.

Another defensive midfield signing for Liverpool before the transfer window closes on Friday has not been ruled out, but they hope the £16.3m arrival of Wataru Endo from Stuttgart gives them adequate cover in the position.

Meanwhile, Palace are also anticipating further approaches for Eberechi Eze and Marc Guehi this week. Like Doucoure, both are content at Palace but have attracted interest this summer.

Tottenham are long-term admirers of Guehi, while Eze is liked by Manchester City — though the Premier League champions have not yet lodged a formal bid for the midfielder, who hopes to be called up by England again when Gareth Southgate announces his latest squad on Thursday.

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