Liverpool will be ‘all over’ Croatian defender Josko Gvardiol in this summer’s transfer market.
That’s according to journalist David Lynch. Speaking on the Born and Red YouTube channel, Lynch claimed that Gvardiol is looking like being a serious option for Liverpool.
“I’ve absolutely no doubt that Liverpool will be all over Gvardiol in the summer,” said the journalist. “The Red Bull link, I know they watch them regularly and will absolutely love him.”
However, Lynch did pre-face this by saying the Reds will have to make room for the 22-year-old in the squad. Given the price Gvardiol is likely to command, it reportedly won’t be straightforward for Liverpool
“He says he’s really keen on coming to Liverpool but it’s just the price tag that could be an issue,” he explained.
“You would have to do something in terms of moving a centre-half on for decent-ish money I think to even look at that. Agreeing with the player would obviously be no problem because he’d be all over it but it just looks a difficult deal to do.”
Liverpool looking to fund Gvardiol capture
If moving on centre-halves is the issue for Liverpool, then it may be a difficult one to solve.
Of the quartet of defenders currently in Liverpool’s stable, three of them would fetch pretty big fees. But as of right now, those three – Joe Gomez, Ibrahima Konate and Virgil van Dijk – are not on the market.
Gomez would have potentially been the one last summer, but his new contract dispelled any chances of that. As for Konate and Van Dijk, they are as near to being indispensable to Jurgen Klopp as possible.
So, if Liverpool are to lose one of the central defenders this summer, the only candidate would appear to be Joel Matip. There have been rumours that Matip is ready to leave Anfield as age starts to creep up on him.
But if the Reds are wanting to get anywhere near Gvardiol’s reported £96m release clause, the 31-year-old won’t put a dent in that. It’s hard to put a value on Big Joel. With one year left on his deal and with his best days likely behind him though, he isn’t going to give Liverpool much to play with.
As a result, perhaps the Reds will have to rely on the sale of players like Kostas Tsimikas, Matip and even Nat Phillips to accumulatively raise the funds. After the World Cup Gvardiol had, he’d definitely be an upgrade.