Tancredi Palmeri has claimed that we’ve made a €10m offer for Inter Milan midfielder Mateo Kovacic. This is understood to have been quickly rejected by the Italian giants, who value the player at around three times that.
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According to the Daily Mirror, Palmeri is confident that the Reds have at least made an opening gambit as we follow up our initial interest in the player, albeit one that has fallen on deaf ears at the San Siro. He also revealed that Barcelona offered €20m for the player last summer and had that rejected as well.
If this is true, there are a couple of things that could work in our favour here. Firstly, Barcelona are still under their transfer ban this summer and won’t be able to rival us with a bid for the 21-year-old Croatian.
Second, reports emerged yesterday (via Sky Sports) that Inter are in trouble for breaking Financial Fair Play rules, and could be forced to sell at least one of their prize assets in order to balance the books.
While we’re clearly not going to score the player for such a derisory amount – €10m equates to little more than £7m – Inter’s recent troubles will definitely have given Brendan Rodgers and co food for thought.
Kovacic is renowned as one of the finest young players on the planet, having already played 76 times in Serie A and won 19 full-international caps for his country.
Elsewhere, the ridiculous rumours linking us with a move for Juventus veteran Andrea Pirlo refuse to dissipate. As far as we’re concerned this one is right up there with – ‘Liverpool are going to sign Zlatan Ibrahimovic’ – it’s not going to happen and we should all move on from this embarrassing suggestion as soon as possible. Thanks Tuttosport…