A truly ridiculous report that has been doing the rounds overnight is suggesting that Liverpool have made a £22m bid for Real Madrid winger Denis Cheryshev, despite him never having played a game for the club.
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And, just to make it all the more hilarious, the Daily Mirror has also claimed that Jordon Ibe will be allowed to leave the club on loan if we successfully complete a deal for the little known Russian.
Where to start on this one…
Well, it seems perfectly plausible that the Reds will have taken a look at Cheryshev – he’s 24, so has room to grow, and had a solid season on loan at Villarreal, where he scored seven goals in 40 appearances last season. But I think the word uninspiring is probably one that would spring to the minds of many Liverpool fans with this one.
Other than his season with Villarreal and a couple of appearances for Sevilla the previous year, Cheryshev has spent the majority of his career playing in the Spanish second division. At his age, you really want to see a bit more development from a player that’s meant to be worth more than £20m.
Bizarrely the Mirror claims that Cheryshev would be the ideal replacement for wantaway forward Raheem Sterling – not sure about that – but then add that his move would also leave Jordon Ibe ‘surplus’ to requirements… No.
Ibe was brilliant last season after returning from his loan spell with Derby County and is sure to be an important player for us in the upcoming campaign, regardless of which other players come and go in the next few weeks.
We’d certainly rather have Ibe – who is already a firm favourite with the Anfield faithful – than another Eastern European wonderkid. We’ve already got one of those.
Let’s hope that this is just pointless rumour-mongering from the Mirror, because it definitely wouldn’t go down well with us if it proved to be true.