It’s looking more and more likely that Christian Benteke will be moved on after only one season at Liverpool.
He arrived at the club for a whopping £32.5m fee from Aston Villa last summer, but like the only player more expensive Liverpool have ever signed Andy Carroll – he’s just not adapted to our style.
Both are powerful, aerial strikers who did well at lower level Premier League clubs – but couldn’t live up to expectation or price-tag. The similarities are uncanny.
Sky Sports claim that high flying West Ham want to make the Belgian a marquee signing at the end of this season ahead of their move into the Olympic Stadium.
Their report suggests that Benteke is a on a three-man shortlist along with Ligue 1 forwards Michy Batshuayi and Alexandre Lacazette, and that the Irons would be willing to spend up to £40m to secure one of them.
In truth, Liverpool would surely accept roughly half that sum in order to cut our losses on the 25-year-old – who despite scoring eight goals in all competitions – has fallen to fourth choice in the striker pecking order.
Our best bet here is to cash in and let Klopp spend the money on someone whose characteristics suit his footballing vision.