Report: Liverpool have been monitoring the progress of Hwang Hee-Chan all season

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Liverpool have had eyes on Hwang Hee-Chan all season, according to reports. Wolves just secured the player permanently.

This comes from the Telegraph. They claim that Liverpool, along with Tottenham Hotspur, have been monitoring South Korean forward Hwang Hee-Chan all season long.

Hwang is currently on loan with Wolves but will join them permanently at the end of the season. Per the Athletic, Wolves triggered a £12m option to buy on Wednesday to secure the deal.

They do so after Hwang scored four goals in 14 games to kick off his Premier League career. Injury has him out of the lineup now, however, but the 26-year-old impressed enough up to December. Manager Bruno Lage labelled him a ‘top player‘ fairly early on, making the permanent deal almost inevitable.

Liverpool monitor Hwang Hee-Chan

This is an unusual one. The Telegraph aren’t actually the first to make this claim, with the Mirror having said similar back in November. We’ll repeat what we said then – this doesn’t make too much sense.

Liverpool will have known about Hwang for some time as he played against them back in 2019. The forward lined up alongside Erling Haaland and Takumi Minamino for RB Salzburg, scoring a memorable Anfield goal.

The Reds would sign Minamino the following month, while Haaland went to Borussia Dortmund and Hwang to RB Leipzig. The latter struggled in Germany, though, and got his loan to Wolves in the summer.

But that’s the confusing part. If Hwang showed enough for Liverpool to want him this season, he would also be showing enough for Wolves to trigger that option to buy. If feels like the only real chance to sign him was in the summer while his stock was at its lowest.

Going forward, any potential fee would cost a fortune and we certainly haven’t seen enough from Hwang to justify that. It feels as though Liverpool missed the boat on Hwang, not once but twice.