Report: Liverpool target sees price drop by £14m as the Reds continue to push for a transfer

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Real Madrid have lowered their price for Marco Asensio by £14m, according to reports. Liverpool supposedly want the player this summer.

This comes from Sport. They claim that Real Madrid continue to lower their price for Marco Asensio. Having previously wanted around £35m in order to sell the Spaniard, they’d now accept as little as £21m.

And that alerts a few clubs. Sport mention both Liverpool and Newcastle United as wanting Asensio – but others likely lurk in the background. What’s for sure, though, is that it’s becoming easier to sign the player as he’s now in the final year of his contract.

Real don’t particularly want to lose him for free in a year’s time, thus a sale now makes sense. This is turning into a game of chicken, however.

Real Madrid lower Marco Asensio price

There have been plenty of reports linking Liverpool with Asensio. The first came from AS last month as they claimed that the Reds had made the player aware that they wanted to sign him.

Now, that’s actually fairly ambiguous. While they may want Asensio, Liverpool could have been talking about a free transfer in 2023. That’s something that makes a lot more sense than buying right now, given certain contracts will expire at Anfield.

And that’s where this game of chicken comes in. Real will want to sell Asensio before his contract expires. They also want to extract the biggest fee possible, though, and that means gradually reducing the price until a team bites.

If we’re being honest, we expect Newcastle United to bite before Liverpool do. While there are justifications for the Reds signing Asensio, there are also big red flags that will likely turn them away from a £20m+ transfer.

It’s also debatable whether Asensio would want to play for Liverpool, given he wouldn’t start. Newcastle could give him the regular football he wants, while almost certainly meeting any wage demands. Again, we’re not sure the Reds will do that.

But who knows? Perhaps Real continue to lower the asking price and Liverpool jump at it. This appears to be the only real transfer the club still has any interest in – assuming these reports are at all accurate – and that makes it one to watch.