Liverpool to make bid for £30m star “this week”

It is a good time to be a Liverpool fan. This is why.

Liverpool have simply received the Premier League, in case you missed it, within the first season since Jurgen Klopp referred to as it a day. FSG had been dominated within the court docket of public opinion to have an inconceivable activity on their palms, and few felt threatened when Feyenoord boss Arne Slot was appointed the long-lasting German’s successor.

However Slot is now champion of England, and he is actually being rewarded for his triumph in the summertime switch market.

Final week, Liverpool introduced the signing of Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen, having already raided the German facet for Jeremie Frimpong.

Wirtz is likely one of the brightest quantity tens in world soccer, and his £100m fastened price could rise to a British-record £116m.

Now, Milos Kerkez has alighted in Merseyside as he completes the finer particulars of his transfer to Anfield. The Bournemouth left-back will check in a transfer price £40m. He’s touted as Andy Robertson’s successor.

The younger Hungarian has leapt on the likelihood to signal for Slot’s Reds, however what’s it about his tackle the full-back sport that has prompted FSG to barrel forward and make him the costliest large defender in Liverpool’s historical past?

Why Liverpool have signed Milos Kerkez

Robertson is a legend, however there isn’t any query he is been on the decline. The 31-year-old is being focused by Atletico Madrid, and Kerkez, a decade his junior, is the proper inheritor.

Whereas Kerkez, 21, has solely been within the English soccer for 2 years, he got here into his personal beneath Andoni Iraola’s wing final season, beginning all 38 of Bournemouth’s top-flight fixtures, scoring twice and laying on 5 assists.

Athletic, energetic and unrelentingly intense, he is the true deal, having additionally been coveted by Manchester Metropolis and Actual Madrid. Liverpool had been all the time a step forward, and he’ll assist take this excellent group to the subsequent stage.

In a method, Slot has hit the jackpot with the squad he inherited, however we should not neglect that Liverpool had gone 4 years with out tasting the Premier League, and he fuelled the hearth that hadn’t proved fairly sufficient over the previous a number of seasons.

He deserves a squad usual in his imaginative and prescient, and Kerkez matches the invoice. Nevertheless, Liverpool nonetheless want a centre-back, and sporting director Richard Hughes has simply the participant in thoughts.

Liverpool put together bid for brand spanking new defender

In accordance with French journalist Sébastien Vidal, Liverpool are set to desk their opening bid for Crystal Palace’s Marc Guehi “on the finish of the week”, information which follows Fabrizio Romano’s affirmation that FSG are certainly eager after agreeing to promote Jarell Quansah to Leverkusen.

It emerged a number of days in the past that the Merseysiders have a long-term curiosity within the England worldwide, who’s out of contract in a single 12 months.

They might be prepared to pay £30m, however this isn’t anticipated to persuade the Eagles to half methods.

Nevertheless, Guehi, who’s 24, has simply helped Palace to glory within the FA Cup and needs assurances over his taking part in time, with Arsenal, Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur additionally thought-about suitors.

How Marc Guehi and Milos Kerkez may work in tandem

Guehi all the time had some extent of elite potential, having risen via the ranks at Chelsea’s Cobham academy earlier than being bought to Palace for £18m in 2021 after two spectacular mortgage spells with Swansea Metropolis within the Championship.

Now, he is “England’s finest centre-back” to some, and the net analyst who made that declare may actually draw on information to substantiate his declare.

Certainly, Guehi received the FA Cup final 12 months however has produced persistently high quality performances over a collection of years to draw Gareth Southgate’s consideration, having featured prominently at Euro 2024, and now Thomas Tuchel’s too.

Strong as an ox and deceptively elegant on the ball, Guehi has the proper model for ‘Slotball’, defending Alisson Becker’s aim whereas subscribing to the ball-playing focus the coach expects.

It is positively a stylistic strategy that might see him thrive with Kerkez, who has already confirmed himself invaluable alongside a ball-playing defender in Dean Huijsen, who Liverpool wished earlier than he signed for Actual Madrid for £50m earlier this summer time.

Guehi, because it goes, was recorded by data-focused website FBref to be one of many rising Spaniard’s most comparable gamers within the Premier League final season, ranked as he was among the many high 11% of positional friends for aim involvements, the highest 9% for via balls, and the highest 21% for ball recoveries per 90.

It hasn’t simply been a flash within the pan, although, with Guehi additionally standing out beneath Roy Hodgson’s wizened wing, accidents limiting his sport in 2023/24 when Oliver Glasner first took the helm.

He is a high participant, praised for his “unimaginable” footballing means by teammate Eberechi Eze, and with a transparent emphasis on progressing play via dribbling upfield or choosing out calculated ahead passes, Kerkez may discover the dream long-term associate on the left facet of defence.

In fact, Virgil van Dijk holds down the fort moderately effectively in that space, however the skipper turns 34 subsequent month as he entered the penultimate 12 months of his Liverpool profession, and, as analyst Ben Mattinson so neatly places it, he is “a kind of versatile CB’s who can play each side equally as comfortably.”

With such hanging completeness and a blooming title-winning style, Guehi could be a worthy addition to the Liverpool trigger and the proper left-sided associate for Kerkez to go from power to power beneath Slot’s watchful steering.