According to reports from France, Liverpool have taken a huge step forward in their pursuit of Yan Diomande and could now have a free run at signing the RB Leipzig winger.
For some time now, it appears to have been a straight shootout between the Reds and Paris Saint-Germain for the 19-year-old, who’s been turning heads with his performances for Ivory Coast at the World Cup.
The Merseysiders have seen an opening offer of €100m (£86m) rejected by the Bundesliga outfit, although Fabrizio Romano expects LFC to go back with an improved proposal in the near future, with the Red Bull-owned club potentially considering a deal if someone were to bid €130m (£112.2m).
French outlet Media Foot has reported that Liverpool have now ‘reached an agreement’ with Diomande’s representatives ‘after an initial round of observation and discussions’, with the next step being to try and tempt Leipzig with a sufficiently enticing offer.
By contrast, PSG are said to have ‘thrown in the towel’ after the winger’s valuation increased further off the back of his World Cup performances, to the extent that it now sits outside of the European champions’ budget, and they’ve opted against partaking in a bidding war with the Reds.
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We’d take these reports with a pint of salt for now until such time that they’re corroborated by top-tier sources closer to him, but if indeed Liverpool have agreed personal terms with Diomande and PSG have pulled out of the race, the odds are now firmly in favour of the Merseysiders.
Of course, it mustn’t be forgotten that probably the biggest obstacle of all has yet to be overcome – coming up with an offer which’d convince Leipzig to do business, with the Bundesliga side determined to hold onto the player and duly putting a prohibitive price tag on him.
We fully expect a second official bid to come from Anfield in the near future, although it’ll likely be less than the German club’s asking price, in the hope that they might compromise to some extent.
There could be a few more rounds of back-and-forth in Liverpool’s pursuit of Diomande over the summer, but seemingly having PSG out of the way would take a lot of the pressure off Richard Hughes to rush into a megabucks offer for fear of being gazumped by the Parisians.
There’s still work to be done for this proposed transfer to come off, but the route certainly seems that bit clearer now that our main rivals for the player seem to have stepped aside.
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Clearly news that needs to be taken with a bucketful of salt. Let’s add to this – Diomande wears number 49, a number currently occupied by Kaide Gordon at Liverpool; and just so it happens, today there are reports that Liverpool are about to sell Gordon.
Ain’t gonna happen!!!!!
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