£86m player who Liverpool ‘love’ could now join Manchester City – Fabrizio Romano

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Liverpool explored a deal for RB Leipzig defender Josko Gvardiol in January, but he could now join Manchester City.

That’s according to journalist Fabrizio Romano, who has offered a couple of interesting updates on the centre-back. Firstly, speaking to GiveMeSport last night, Romano reported that although Liverpool ‘love’ Gvardiol, he’s out of their price range.

“For Gvardiol, they [Liverpool] love him,” said the journalist. “Already in January, they explored the conditions of the deal. The reality is that this is too expensive. After they left the race for Jude Bellingham because he was too expensive, I don’t see Liverpool going to spend €100m [around £86m] on a centre-back.”

Bad news for Reds, then. But it was still to get worse. Taking to to Twitter this morning, Romano offered an update to claim that City are pushing ahead with a deal for Gvardiol.

“Understand Manchester City are advancing on Josko Gvardiol deal on player side,” he wrote. “Negotiations on personal terms are progressing well, same as [Mateo] Kovacic. Leipzig will only sell Gvardiol for huge fee otherwise they are prepared to keep him for one more season.”

City make their move for Gvardiol

Realistically, Liverpool were never really going to be able to sign Gvardiol in January, or this summer. They clearly really rate the centre-back, but he’s simply going to cost too much.

With City ready to move ahead, the only hope the Reds now have is that they’ll fail to meet Leipzig’s hefty asking price.

As one of the richest clubs in world football, the money shouldn’t be a problem for Pep Guardiola’s treble winners. However, City have at times walked away from deals if they feel they’re getting ripped off.

If Gvardiol’s current club hold out for the enormous fee they’re hoping for, then perhaps City will feel it’s no longer worth it.

That scenario now looks like being the only one where Liverpool still have a shot at the Croatian international. Should he stay at Leipzig another season, maybe the Reds can use next year’s budget to bring him in.

At that stage, Jurgen Klopp’s need to add a centre-back to his squad will be overwhelming. It would make sense to put the whole budget towards Gvardiol.

For now though, with such a big midfield rebuild needing to be sorted, there’s no logic in blowing £86m on a centre-back, as good as he is. We’ll be crossing our fingers that Gvardiol is still on the market in a year’s time. It’s not looking good, though.