Although Liverpool are still searching for a managerial successor to Jurgen Klopp, it appears that the club are busy at work eyeing up potential summer transfer targets.
According to HITC, the Reds had scouts present in Portugal over the weekend to assess three players in particular who are believed to be in the plans of CEO of Football Michael Edwards and sporting director Richard Hughes.
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Ruben Amorim has been the favourite to take over as the next LFC manager, and three members of his Sporting Lisbon side have been touted as viable transfer targets on Merseyside in Viktor Gyokeres, Goncalo Inacio and Morten Hjulmand.
It’s reported that the Swedish striker is of particular interest to Liverpool and was the main focus of the scouting mission.
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According to the Daily Express, a three-pronged raid for each of the players mentioned could set Liverpool back £190m in the summer transfer window, which’d likely account for a sizeable chunk of the budget available to Klopp’s eventual successor.
The Reds’ scouts will surely have been highly impressed by Gyokeres, who grabbed the headlines with two goals in Sporting’s 3-0 win over Vitoria Guimaraes and also won seven duels and recorded four successful dribbles (Sofascore).
Meanwhile, Inacio completed a whopping 111 passes out of 117 attempted (95% success rate), with seven of his nine long balls finding a teammate. As for Hjulmand, he won four of his five duels, completed 85% of his passes and made two tackles in helping his team to close in on a second league title in four years.
HITC stated that a striker and a centre-back are high on Edwards’ wish list for the summer, which could see the Swedish marksman and Portugal defender emerge as priority targets during the off-season.
Much will depend on whether Amorim ultimately takes over from Klopp at Liverpool, and how many of his current Sporting players he might wish to bring with him, along with how far the Reds’ budget will stretch.