Christian Benteke to Liverpool situation unchanged – Reds won’t meet asking price

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The Liverpool Echo have been quick to address the rumours that have been circulating this morning regarding Aston Villa striker Christian Benteke.

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News appeared to break on social media in the early hours, with it being suggested that the striker’s transfer to Liverpool was a done deal – causing this outpouring of unhappiness from our supporters.

However, the Echo believes these rumours to be false, and claim that the situation between ourselves and the player remains unchanged – Benteke wants to move to Anfield and Liverpool are interested, but we don’t want to pay the player’s £32.5m buyout clause, which Villa are insisting is met in full.

According to the source, the Reds won’t pay any more than £25m for the 24-year-old, who has two years remaining on his current contract. Villa don’t wish to sell and are unlikely to be tempted into a compromise.

“There’s a buy-out clause in his contract so it will be impossible for us to stop him if he wants to go,” Villa boss Tim Sherwood said back in May, in quotes taken by the Echo. “Someone’s got to meet that buy-out clause and if they don’t it won’t be considered because we don’t want to lose him.”

Liverpool are desperate to add a marquee centre-forward to our ranks this summer after the frustrations of our last campaign, which was notable for its extreme lack of goals following the departure of Luis Suarez.

Benteke has been heavily linked with a switch to Anfield for several weeks now but it appears that little or no progress has been made on a deal thus far, despite several suggestions to the contrary (via talkSPORT).

Carlos Bacca is among the other names to be linked with Liverpool but he’s now on the verge of a move to AC Milan (via Sky Sports).

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