Liverpool are potentially set to miss out on Ayyoub Bouaddi this summer.
Lille are reportedly looking for €100m [£86.2m] for an immediate sale of the Moroccan international in the current transfer window, reports Ben Jacobs with GiveMeSport.
This follows the Reds apparently opting to abandon their push for RB Leipzig’s Yan Diomande, with the Ivorian expressing a preference for PSG.
We’re intrigued by the prospect of Bouaddi coming to Anfield this summer, but it now seems somewhat more likely that the Reds will be deterred.
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It’s worth pointing out that Jacobs’s report emphasises Lille are looking for a minimum of €80m [£68.9m], which would appear to be the starting point for clubs prepared to sanction a pre-agreement.
But ultimately, Liverpool would potentially be looking at forking out a significant sum for the 18-year-old and allowing him to stay put in Ligue 1 for another year.
And it’s hard to imagine almost spending £90m on bringing a young midfielder to L4 at a time when the club desperately needs offensive quality.
It would be a little unfair to relentlessly chastise Richard Hughes and Co. at this relatively early stage in the window.
After all, signing Victor Munoz for £34.5m represents some pretty astute business at a time when Liverpool needed to spare significant funds for the signing of Yan Diomande.
With that transfer dream seemingly over, however, now questions turn to the club’s efforts beyond the Catalonian and Ivorian in the market.
Where is the Plan B and C, for instance? Why is the club holding talks around a player they might not even see for another season when the budget is reportedly tighter than the kitty available last summer?
This is precious time we’re wasting when it’s abundantly clear to everyone that Liverpool desperately need offensive reinforcements and, in particular, a Mo Salah successor.
Look, you can miss out on top targets. It happens. But we need to see some kind of effort made to either blow the barn doors off with a signing of a similar calibre to Diomande or spread the cost across some further astute pieces of business.
We can’t hamstring a manager who relies on numbers to rotate to maintain his high-intensity pressing game.
So, as far as we’re concerned, the pursuit of Bouaddi is a waste of time if we can’t negotiate a lower fee to bring in the player this season.
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