Liverpool are going to have to bring some quality into the club this summer. The Reds need to upgrade on their backup players after the lack of strength in depth in the side was thoroughly exposed this term. Liverpool should swoop for Jeremy Doku, the financial crisis in Ligue 1 could aid their pursuit.
Who is Jeremy Doku?
18-year-old winger Jeremy Doku plies his trade at Rennes in the French Ligue 1.
The French club signed the wonderkid from Anderlecht for a fee around £22.5m in the summer.
Since joining he’s impressed, though he hasn’t scored as many goals as he did in Belgium. He’s started 20 games and made four sub appearances in the league this term despite his young age.
Liverpool tried to sign Jeremy Doku in 2018, inviting him to train on Merseyside.
The youngster’s father told Het Nieuwsblad that Jürgen Klopp saw him as a the successor to Sadio Mane.
Ligue 1 financial crisis
The French top flight is in dire straits.
A megabucks TV rights deal with MediaPro collapsed recently, leaving a €3.25bn (£2.8bn) hole in the budget according to CityAM.
Plenty of clubs will be scrambling for cash in order to plug the gaps left by the collapsed deal.
Clubs had been counting on the lucrative MediaPro contract and any new rights negotiated with a broadcaster such as CanalPlus won’t be able to come close.
Liverpool should swoop for Jeremy Doku
Liverpool could land Jeremy Doku using this crisis to their advantage.
As Ollie Connolly pointed out on the Liverpool.com podcast:
“[French clubs] might, for example, want £45m for a player who is going to be Europe’s next star, but would they take £30m right now with no installments?”
Given that Rennes paid just over £20m for Doku over the summer, we could look to give them a little more than there money back and land a long term target in the process.
The transfer market is a ruthless world and Michael Edwards is as ruthless as they come, we wouldn’t be surprised by an arrival from France this summer.