Liverpool can’t throw their summer away for reported £80m Declan Rice

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Liverpool may have a chance to sign Declan Rice this summer. It’s a deal they must avoid, however – there’s too much to be done.

90min reported last week that Liverpool are one of several teams looking at a summer move for Declan Rice. They had his price dropping below £50m – a bargain fee.

Rice is a player that makes sense for Liverpool in some ways. He’s young, experienced, versatile and a capable leader – we have him down as a Jordan Henderson replacement.

And now there’s talk that Chelsea – a principle contender for his signing – are no longer interested. Frank Lampard had driven their pursuit and now he’s gone.

That’s how the Guardian sees things, anyway. But there’s a catch here. They don’t think that £50m price-tag is accurate.

Instead, they believe it’s £80m.

Priorities

Now, Liverpool don’t actually need a new midfield. They have a lot of those – we won’t name them all.

More specifically, Liverpool have a series of players currently capable of playing holding midfield. Fabinho is arguably the best in the world there, while Jordan Henderson and Thiago are also exceptional.

Thus Rice is far from a priority. He’s incredibly talented and would be a good signing – he just wouldn’t be a smart one.

Liverpool desperately lack depth at the back and up top, after all. This season shows that in spades.

They have so much depth in midfield, though, that players are covering the other areas. We’ve had Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Curtis Jones in forward roles recently. Fabinho has played the entire season, near enough, in defence.

Liverpool can best bolster their midfield, then, by not spreading it as thin. Sign in other areas and you get a full-strength midfield back.

So when Liverpool look to spend this summer, Rice should be quite far down the list. He’s a great talent but they need to save their money for big signings elsewhere.

If you spend £80m on Rice, after all, you’re going find it difficult to sign a superstar forward.

Gini Wijnaldum will likely need replacing, of course. But Liverpool can do that for well below £80m and still have enough to bolster their other areas.

That’s got to be the strategy this summer. Rice, as good a player as he is, is just low down the list of priorities.