Liverpool met with the representatives of Erling Haaland to discuss a potential £300m transfer before he joined Manchester City this summer.
That’s according to The Times, who claim that Liverpool had ‘one meeting’ with the players agents. However, the Reds were reportedly put off by the ‘eye-watering’ figures they were quoted.
It’s claimed that the representatives put the total fee at around the £300m mark. £100m of this would reportedly be on Haaland’s Borussia Dortmund release clause, as well as ‘family and agency fees.’
The rest of the money would be spread over the 22-year-old’s wages for five years. The Times claim that Liverpool were told Haaland would be looking for £770k-a-week, with £400,000 of that being in basic wage and the rest in guaranteed add-ons.
Added together, this would have cost the Reds a further £200m.
Liverpool not feeling sorry for themselves
The fact that Liverpool actually took the meeting with Haaland’s agents is far more of a surprise than them rejecting these terms.
It was always going to take something special to tempt the Norwegian this summer. He had his pick of clubs.
When that’s the case, money often wins out. And as Jurgen Klopp has pointed out in the press this weekend, Man City certainly have plenty more of that than Liverpool.
No matter, the Reds can’t sit around feeling sorry for themselves. They also managed to acquire a top young striker this summer. They must now put all their focus into making Darwin Nunez the perfect player for them.
Haaland and Nunez will face off again at Anfield today. We should now get a better idea of the gulf between the two players.
Back in July it was the Liverpool man who came out on top during the Community Shield. Claims were made that day that look pretty ridiculous less than three months on.
In the intervening time, Haaland has blown Nunez out of the water. The number of goals he’s scoring is something we’ve never really seen in English football before. Even Jurgen Klopp has called his record ‘crazy’ via liverpoolfc.com.
But with Nunez now scoring in back-to-back games himself, he’ll also be feeling confident. It could be the perfect time to score a first Anfield goal. No regrets for Liverpool over this one, Darwin is going to burst into life, we can feel it.
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