Bournemouth have agreed all aspects of a deal to bring Antonio Silva to the south coast of England.
Fabrizio Romano reports on X (formerly Twitter) that the Cherries have agreed a package deal worth €30m [£25.6m].
Liverpool were thought to have previously shortlisted the 22-year-old centre-back.
It’s incredible to think that this was a player who once carried a €100m [£85.6m] release clause (Football Italia). Of course, if we’re going to be fair about the situation, we should also point out that Benfica, reportedly, had been prepared to accept figures closer to €70m-80m [£59.9m-68.5m] at the time when this was reported a couple of years ago.
🚨🍒 Antonio Silva to Bournemouth, here we go! Deal now signed between clubs for the centre back.
€25m fixed fee, €5m add-ons and medical to follow as Benfica authorized Silva for travel.
New centre back for #AFCB. 🇵🇹 pic.twitter.com/9oCf149Use
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) July 31, 2026
Regardless, and even working with those reduced figures, Bournemouth deserve praise for effectively securing a £60m (minimum) footballer for less than half his market value.
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Of course, given that Liverpool’s need for a new centre-back – potentially two in light of Joe Gomez’s recent injury – is obvious to all, it begs the question as to why we didn’t throw our hat into the ring.
Look, we can understand why the club might be put off from paying £52m for Maxence Lacroix (Chelsea) or £46m for Luka Vuskovic (Brighton).
But can we not afford to take a £25.6m “risk” for Antonio Silva? Is the budget really that stretched that we have to wait and see what happens with Bradley Barcola?
We get it. With Ibrahima Konate out the door and Virgil van Dijk set to partner up with rookie Jeremy Jacquet (while Giovanni Leoni recovers from injury), Liverpool could do with a veteran option coming in through the door.
But we’ve now seen a whole host of relatively experienced options who’ve made the move around the Premier League without Liverpool throwing their weight about. Jan Paul van Hecke, Marcos Senesi, Lacroix… what exactly are we waiting for?
Because as things currently stand, we’ll be having to rely on Luke Chambers (22) to help shore up our options, given we only have two fit senior centre-backs available. That still leaves us a man short, by the way.
Perhaps Liverpool have a better option up their sleeve than the names discussed, but it doesn’t half feel that we’re letting a lot of value just slip off the table.
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Hmmmnn liverpool (lfc),can victor m.v solve lfc problem, we can buy lacro!x and botman the money iraola want to spend in barcola if he use the money to buy botman and lacroix for now fr!mpong we take the rb, can josh abe not join lfc now he can help lfc at the left winger
If we think we conceded a lot of goals last season, wait until Gomez gets injured in the second game of the season… because we have NO defence. LFC cannot rely on VVD alone. We need an experienced CB – not a 22 year old (no offense). Pressure for such a young defender when guys like Haaland, Watkins or Pedro runs at him will amass and he will lose all of his confidence in 4 games.
Iraola has no say whatsoever on transfers in or out. He’s a yes man. FSG did the same last season, and they did it when we had klopp. The bare minimum, if van dijk gets injured God help us. Gravenberch will end up playing centre back, I can see szoboszlai playing at right back again.
Some would call it mismanagement to go into a long hard season with so few central defenders, but we’ve seen this all before from charlatan owners FSG.
Last season we were the richest club in the premier league making 700 million a year. FSG did spend 200 million after sales, the only time they ever have. Back to normal. Why we didn’t get marcos sensi on a free transfer is beyond me. Someone who’s worked with Iraola.
It’s a complete shambles. FSG looking to sell chunks out of Liverpool so it saves them from spending.
Fsg charlatan owners get them out
Can Kerkez not play cb and rb
While lfc did not buy kounde that time am not sure the andoni iraola led us to first next season, what is my concern is if vvd leaves who will be the successor of him but jacquet will be like konate,while leoni will be like vvd and next ifeanyi ndukwe comeback from the loan he will sub leoni but this two cb is not ok yet,this money you want buy barcola if you use the money buy saliba or kounde or spence it will be better
They build weaknesses in teams to allow the designated team to win the PL title.
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