Liverpool are now in a situation where we may have to reluctantly abandon our chase for Red Bull Leipzig’s Naby Keita, with the Germans rejecting our £66m bid which was tabled earlier this week.
Paul Joyce in the Times suggests that we may now turn our attention elsewhere in terms of central midfield enforcement – but will refuse to do so with our priority centre-back target Virgil van Dijk.
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LFC have whopping £66m Keita bid rejected; RB chairman explains why
This is interesting, as it suggests Klopp and Liverpool are still certain a deal for the Dutchman will get done – even though Southampton are adamant their skipper is not for sale and publicly, our last comment on the pursuit was the apology for our illegal approach…
Van Dijk is currently on pre-season tour in Austria, with Maurcio Pellegrino keen on using the centre-back this coming campaign.
It’s pretty obvious that the only way we’ll be able to acquire van Dijk is if he hands in a transfer request, but the fact Klopp will not move to other targets and has previously reminded Liverpool fans that the window closes at the end of August, hints that he thinks this is possible.
Saying that, we’re not sure we’ve got much ‘patient waiting’ left in us!