Liverpool are yet to make any concrete moves for either Gonaclo Inacio or Piero Hincapie.
Rumours have been rife over the past few weeks that Liverpool may try and sign Hincapie in particular during the January transfer window.
But after Ben Jacobs appeared to rule out a move for Hincapie yesterday, transfer expert Fabrizio Romano has now confirmed that the Reds are yet to make any sort of contact over winter signings.
“Liverpool are another club looking at centre-backs but so far no contacts have taken place with Bayer Leverkusen for Piero Hincapie from what I’m told,” Romano told The Daily Briefing. “Hincapie has been strongly linked with Liverpool and other top clubs as he’s looked like a superb young talent for some time now, and he’s also not playing as often as he might have expected, so it’s normal to see new stories about the player.”
The journalist also weighed in on Liverpool’s apparent interest in Sporting defender Inacio. Once again, it’s frustrating news for Reds supporters.
“Liverpool have also been one of a number of teams linked with Goncalo Inacio, but the only way to sign him is to pay his €60m release clause to Sporting and no one has approached Sporting until now,” says Romano. “Let’s see if that changes soon, but for now there is nothing advanced for Liverpool with either Hincapie or Inacio.”
Liverpool holding off for now
As every day passes, the likelihood of Liverpool making a signing in January appears to lessen.
Nevertheless, it was around this time last year that the Reds surprisingly announced the signing of Cody Gakpo. They’ve been known to do things under the radar.
But if they do pull something out of the bag, then we think it’s probably unlikely that it’ll be either Hincapie or Inacio.
Hincapie especially now looks like a long shot. The Ecuadorian has been linked for a long time now, but it’s rare that a categorical rejection of a signing in the press comes to fruition.
Inacio is perhaps a little more of a possibility, then. Sporting have indeed been clear that it’ll take the full £52m release clause to get him out of Lisbon.
Although that is a hefty amount, it’s also more-or-less in the kind of price range that Liverpool tend to shop in.
If they really do think Inacio is the right man for their defence, then it doesn’t feel out of the question that they’ll do that.
In that respect, it perhaps doesn’t mean anything that contact is yet to be made. As we saw with Dominik Szoboszlai’s signing in the summer, things can move quickly when there’s a release clause involved. For now though, we’d suggest Liverpool are planning to keep their powder dry in the New Year.
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