Media Digest: Liverpool have reportedly made the first move to land Aurélien Tchouaméni from Monaco, while Sadio Mané dominates the outgoing transfer gossip....CONTINUE READING
Welcome to the Liverpool.com daily Media Digest. From transfers to tweets, it can be hard to keep up with everything going on in the Anfield sphere. Credible, incredible and anything in between: we round it all up in one place here, taking a sideways look at the day’s media goings-on from around the world.
Deal completed
Liverpool have completed their first ‘deal’ of the summer. Leveraging Derby County’s perilous financial situation, FSG have moved to buy out the sell-on clause initially included in the Kaide Gordon transfer.
Despite a spirited effort from Wayne Rooney, Derby were recently relegated to League One, having failed to overcome a significant points deduction. A cash injection was duly much-needed.
Per the ECHO, Liverpool have provided £500,000 in exchange for the removal of the 20 per cent sell-on clause Derby had held over Gordon. Given that the youngster was only bought for a fee of around £1.5m in the first place, this fresh investment is a clear indication of how far the club believes he can go.
Of course, if all goes to plan, Liverpool will not be cashing in on Gordon at all. However, for a relatively trifling fee in the grand scheme of things, FSG have protected themselves.
Mané future up in the air
When reports emerged yesterday that Sadio Mané was a target for Bayern Munich, it would have been fair to assume that there would be no more breaking stories on the Liverpool forward for at least 24 hours. Instead, his future has taken two more apparent twists in the meantime.
Florian Plettenberg of Sky Sports and Transfermarkt kicked things off by claiming that Hasan Salihamidžić, the Bayern sporting director, met Mané’s agent over the weekend. It just so happens that this agent is shared by Serge Gnabry, who is also in the midst of a 2023 contract standstill, but the Liverpool man was apparently a topic of discussion.
A potential swap deal involving Mané and Gnabry quickly became a discussion point among Liverpool supporters, but it did not take long before another report poured cold water on the idea. Christian Falk, head of football at German publication BILD, quoted the initial tweet, labelling it ‘not true’.
He claims that while Bayern met with the ROOF agency, Mané was not a part of the conversation. Nor are the German giants chasing a transfer.
But even this was not the end of the developments. This morning, Mundo Deportivo chimed in, claiming that Barcelona are interested in signing Mané. The 30-year-old would apparently be ‘delighted’ to join; bafflingly, he is said to believe he has a better chance of winning the Ballon d’Or with the struggling Catalans.
The erratic nature of this saga suggests it may all be agent talk, drummed up to try and land Mané a new Liverpool deal. Either way, it can be expected to drag on until his future is resolved — one way or another.
Liverpool make ‘great’ offer
Another rumbling transfer story is that of Aurélien Tchouaméni. One of Europe’s most sought-after midfielders, luring him to Liverpool always looked like a long shot. However, while Real Madrid remain very much in the frame, talk of a move to Anfield has intensified over recent days.
In fact, Spanish outlet Fichajes have gone as far as to say that Liverpool have already tabled a ‘great’ bid. Aiming to blow the La Liga side out of the water, they have offered Monaco a proposal that could rise to £60m.
This is said to be ‘more than enough’ to convince Monaco to sell. As for Jürgen Klopp, he has given ‘absolute priority’ to the transfer. The only remaining question appears to be whether Liverpool can beat off the competition.
Again, this comes with the caveat that Tchouaméni’s agent is bound to be busy, with so many top clubs interested. All such reports should duly be taken with a pinch of salt. Nevertheless, if there is truth to this, it would be a huge signing for Liverpool as they look to cement their place at the top for years to come.
