Now that we’ve had the Champions League final, surely 2019/20 – the longest football season on record – is finally over and that means it’s time for fans to focus on transfer speculation.
We don’t have long to wait before 2020/21 kicks off though – it already has in several European leagues and Liverpool have the Community Shield against Arsenal at Wembley on Saturday – but the Premier League doesn’t begin until the weekend of September 12 and the international ‘summer’ transfer window will remain open until October 5.
In the meantime though, here’s a look at the latest Reds-related rumours swirling around the internet on the tittle-tattle trail.
Who?
Thiago Alcantara. The 29-year-old midfielder has been strongly linked with a potential move to Anfield for several weeks. You might have watched him win the Champions League wearing an all-red kit on Sunday night. He was playing for Bayern Munich but maybe he could repeat the trick for Liverpool next year?
Where?
Reports in both Germany and Thiago’s native Spain both say he “will move” to Anfield in the current window.
In an article headlined “Love at last sight”, Der Spiegel writes: “It is certain that it will end now and Thiago will move to Liverpool, to Jurgen Klopp. To say goodbye with a Champions League victory would be a fitting conclusion.”
Meanwhile, Sport Witness cite Catalan publication Mundo Deportivo as reporting that Thiago will ‘head to Liverpool’, as if it were a matter of fact.
What?
Now that Thiago’s season is finally over, the matter of resolving his future can come to the fore.
If interested parties are unwilling to meet Bayern’s asking price he could of course sit tight and wait to become a free agent next summer but neither Thiago or Bayern seem to have any great appetite to do that.
The ECHO understands he is not currently an active target for the club but that's not to say he won't be in the future.
Who?
Trabzonspor’s Ugurcan Cakir, who despite being Turkey’s brightest young goalkeeping prospect, has somehow found himself repeatedly linked with a move to Liverpool where he’d have the unenviable task of trying to displace the seemingly immovable object that is Alisson from in between the sticks.
Where?
Turkish Football cite Fanatik as reporting that Brighton & Hove Albion are locked in talks for the €20million-rated 24-year-old but they face competition from Europa League winners Sevilla.
What?
When they already have Brazil’s number one in Alisson who is one of the best goalkeepers in the world, it seems bizarre that Liverpool – especially now with the financial impact of the global coronavirus pandemic – would splurge huge amounts of money on an understudy.
Indeed, at present the Reds, whose back-ups last season were former free agents Adrian and Andy Lonergan, currently have another out-of-contract keeper Javi Cendon, 19, who left Villarreal last month, training with them at their Austrian camp.
To be fair, all of the transfer chatter has seemed to come from the Anatolian end with Trabzonspor president Ahmet Agaoglu commenting on the links during the January window by declaring: “There are offers for Cakir, we continue to receive offers. It’s been said Liverpool have made an offer.
“So a team that is undefeated in the Premier League wants my keeper. In other words Liverpool’s goalkeeper is in my goal.”
There you go.
Who?
Schalke centre-back Ozan Kabak.
Another Turk, he joined Schalke last summer for €15million after just half a season with relegated VfB Stuttgart.
After an impressive full debut season in the Bundesliga playing under Jurgen Klopp’s pal David Wagner, Kabak has been linked with a potential move to Liverpool as a replacement for Dejan Lovren.
Where?
In science, physicians tell us that everything in the universe is connected.
Football’s transfer market seems to support that theory.
The Daily Mail reports that using the funds from former Liverpool target Ben Chilwell’s impending move to Chelsea, former Reds boss Brendan Rodgers will make a move for Kabak and thus ensure the player does not end up at Anfield after all.
What?
Lovren’s exit does leave Klopp light of options going into the new season so you’d expect a centre-back to arrive before the window shuts but speculation remains rife as to just who that might be.
- Who do you think Liverpool should target in the transfer market this summer? Let us know in the comments section below.
