There have been so many names linked with Liverpool in the past few weeks but it does appear that there are now some contingency plans in place for the possibility that Jude Bellingham doesn’t become a Red.
Writing for CaughtOffside, Christian Falk provided the following update: “The first target is Bellingham. If he won’t come to Liverpool, they need a player like Kouadio ‘Manu’ Koné. At the moment, other clubs are closer to him; Leipzig are trying to get him.
“Leipzig have a new sporting director in Max Eberl, who previously worked for Gladbach, and he was the manager who brought Kone from France.
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“They know they’re going to lose Laimer and they’ll need a replacement, which should be Kone. They have a good relationship with the agency and have made some initial steps, which Liverpool can’t because he’s not their No.1 target.”
Manu Kone has been linked with several Premier League clubs of late and it appears that we would have tough competition both in England and Germany, should the player agree to leave his current club.
With seemingly imminent confirmation of Konrad Laimer’s departure to Bayern Munich too, if RB Leipzig want to line up the 21-year-old then we may have little power to halt any ongoing negotiations.
It looks as though we have been scouring the Bundesliga for midfield options of late although it also appears very clear that the top target is Jude Bellingham, although we may have been interested in both of the above mentioned players – the 19-year-old is the one that we have selected as the top target.
There’s no doubt that a few more plan B’s will be in place should the Birmingham-born teen be swayed elsewhere but if we do see Naby Keita, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Arthur Melo and James Milner leave this summer then we will surely need more than one new man through the door.