“Special” £120k-p/w talent now “wants” to join Liverpool

Liverpool are transferring just like the champions that they’re in the summertime switch market, with Arne Slot’s facet welcoming a wealth of gifted gamers to the crew.

Slot has been rewarded for his magnificent maiden marketing campaign, all proper, with Florian Wirtz and Hugo Ekitike and Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong and Giorgi Mamardashvili becoming a member of a title-winning facet hungry for much more success.

And there is extra nonetheless to come back. Liverpool’s cautious planning throughout the previous few years has allowed them to maneuver into his highly effective place.

With Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez each slated for Anfield exits, just a few extra offensive additions may lie across the nook.

Liverpool’s subsequent switch plans

Ought to Diaz and Nunez certainly be bought, Liverpool have quite a lot of choices that they could train to realize the subsequent section of Slot’s sweeping plan.

Ekitike has linked up with the Redmen on their pre-season tour in Asia, however he’s a dynamic ahead who may play out on the left, ought to one other centre-forward be coveted.

Out-and-out wingers corresponding to Anthony Gordon and Actual Madrid’s Rodrygo have additionally been closely linked in latest weeks.

But when Liverpool as an alternative select to signal a brand new quantity 9, it is Newcastle United’s Alexander Isak who has emerged because the main contender, with Spanish sources claiming that the 25-year-old is true on the prime of the membership’s summer season shortlist.

Provided that Fabrizio Romano has since revealed the Sweden worldwide “desires” to signal for the Merseysiders, there’s little query that issues are going to begin to speed up – with a transfer to Anfield stated to be his “precedence”.

The Magpies, it ought to be stated, won’t roll over and permit their talisman to waltz away from St. James’ Park and not using a struggle. Certainly, they’d be searching for a British report £130m cost.

What Alexander Isak would convey to Liverpool

Ekitike is a gifted and versatile ahead, however he is undoubtedly a piece in progress. In Isak, Liverpool would signal themselves a quantity 9 proper on the prime of his sport and with a wealth of Premier League expertise.

His medical taking pictures his a factor to behold.

The 25-year-old joined Newcastle from Actual Sociedad for a club-record £63m payment in 2022 and he has since cast fairly the profession for himself in England, the frontman of a fast-rising outfit, qualifying for the Champions League in two of his three phrases and beating Liverpool to elevate the Carabao Cup in March.

Having shaken off the damage points that plagued him throughout his debut marketing campaign, the £120k-per-week Isak is “the perfect striker on the planet” to some, with analyst Raj Chohan saying precisely that towards the tip of the 2024/25 marketing campaign, with the ahead having scored 27 targets and equipped six assists throughout all competitions.

The circumstances across the Liverpool bid for this excellent Premier League participant provide sure similarities to when Jurgen Klopp oversaw the £75m acquisition of Virgil van Dijk from Southampton, the Dutchman changing into the topic of a world-record payment for a defender on the time.

Isak’s £130m price ticket would additionally make him a record-breaking participant, ought to he go away Newcastle this summer season, which illustrates the depths of Liverpool’s need, for they’re keen to spend important charges when the participant is taken into account to be gifted sufficient.

They bought it proper the primary time. May they strike once more? Van Dijk, now Liverpool’s title-winning captain, has accomplished 319 fixtures for the Reds, notching 28 targets and 13 assists, profitable the complete gamut of silverware and cementing himself as one of many best gamers of his technology.

A pacesetter and way over only a tough-tackling defender (though that is likely one of the staples of the 33-year-old’s talent set), Van Dijk warranted such a cost as a result of he’s a lot greater than his place defines him as.

Isak is identical. As per FBref, the centre-forward ranked among the many prime 16% of positional friends throughout Europe’s prime 5 leagues final 12 months for shot-creating actions, the highest 13% for progressive passes, the highest 7% for progressive carries and the highest 8% for profitable take-ons per 90.

He can be tasked with scoring the targets for Liverpool, however Isak would even be anticipated to carry out as an all-encompassing talisman. His expertise calls for it.

After all, Isak and Van Dijk usually are not positionally related, however they’re two of probably the most gifted gamers of their respective positions, having minimize their tooth and developed their expertise elsewhere within the English prime flight earlier than making the leap to Merseyside.

Furthermore, neither can be the youngest on the block when first arriving at Anfield, for Van Dijk was 26 years outdated when he made the transfer and Isak is, after all, 25 years outdated.

In a manner although, this bespeaks their maturity and completeness, arriving on the membership with ready-made expertise on the highest stage, keen to steer the crew by way of a interval of sustained success.

Described as a “particular soccer participant” by pundit Daniel Sturridge, Isak has the prospect to emulate Van Dijk in making the transfer to Liverpool for a report payment after making his title elsewhere.

Newcastle’s outstanding rise differs to that of Southampton, however the similarities are there.

If Slot and sporting director Richard Hughes do handle to tug this unbelievable feat off, it’d simply show to be each bit as transformative as that point when Klopp rewrote the script with the seize of Van Dijk.