Former Liverpool star Paul Stewart has claimed that Leeds United’s Raphinha is “not Liverpool standard”.
The Brazilian, who registered 19 goal contributions in all competitions last term, has been long linked with a switch to Anfield, though reports pairing the club and player have somewhat died down of late.
“For me, he’s not Liverpool standard,” the ex-Red told Transfer Tavern. “I think he’s a great player, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t think you’re getting anything better in terms of [Sadio] Mane, [Roberto] Firmino and [Mohamed] Salah.”
Kingsley Coman has been favoured by the press in recent times with regard to a potential move to Merseyside, with Florian Plettenberg claiming the seriousness of the Reds’ interest in the Bayern Munich star.
In fairness to Raphinha, very few players in world football are up to the standard set by our imperious front-three.
The reality of our potential transfer budget, however, means we’ll be unlikely to afford the kind of superstars who would genuinely instantly improve our starting trio without any coaching on Jurgen Klopp’s part.
As prior supposedly “lesser” signings have proven, however, the German has proven he is more than capable of crafting world-beaters out of seemingly ordinary players.
As far as we at the Empire of the Kop are concerned, Raphinha is far from being merely ordinary, though we wouldn’t put it past Klopp to take the 24-year-old’s game up a gear if our interest in the former Rennes star was genuine.
Liverpool signing Euros star would be similar to coup purchase of Salah in 2017
Not good enough ? He is five years younger and the current front three will be into their declining years in five more years. In any case he is happy at LUFC and his value is increasing.