Liverpool will have to make huge offer to sign 22-year-old, his club think they can keep him

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Liverpool are going to have to make an ‘explosive’ offer in order to convince Nice to sell Khephren Thuram this summer.

According to reports this morning, the Reds are weighing up a bid for Thuram after opening talks with agents. And taking to Twitter this afternoon, French journalist Santi Aouna appeared to confirm these rumours.

However, Aouna also claimed that OGC Nice are confident of keeping the 22-year-old, unless a huge offer arrives from Liverpool.

“As mentioned in April, Kephren Thuram is on Liverpool’s shortlist,” wrote the journalist. “Initial contacts have been made but there hasn’t been any official offer has yet transmitted to Nice.

“They believe they can keep their player unless one more season. Only an explosive offer would convince them.”

Nice stick to their guns

In a run of positive news for Liverpool in terms of transfers, this is a slightly less good update. It sounds like Nice are going to play hard-ball over Thuram.

Of course, that is their right to do so. And after the Reds saved the hassle of dealing with Brighton over Alexis Mac Allister, maybe they’re due a good transfer tug of war.

In terms of a fee, something around £53m has been mooted to take Thuram away from the south of France.

Truthfully, that sounds like a little much. He’s obviously a player with enormous potential and the raw materials to be a proper, proper midfielder. But right now, that’s still somewhat hypothetical.

Thuram has already shown enough to make it into a stacked France national team, that’s true. But he’s also yet to play at the highest level consistently and the fee should reflect that.

Still, having seemingly got Mac Allister over the line for around £45m, Liverpool should have a bit of cash to play with.

As a result, there’s hopefully some wiggle room to be agreed on between the clubs. We don’t know quite what Nice would term to be an ‘explosive’ offer, but the Reds will have a figure in mind, no doubt. Fingers crossed an agreement can be reached.