Liverpool appear to have missed out on Orkun Kokcu following Benfica’s swoop for the Feyenoord midfielder and could yet lose a second.
TalkSPORT now reports that West Ham have lined up Fulham’s Joao Palhinha (also linked with the Reds) as a potential replacement for Declan Rice.
The 27-year-old has previously been namedropped by Jurgen Klopp in a post-match press conference, being described as the Cottagers’ ‘connector’ (in quotes carried by Liverpool Offside).
With both Manu Kone and Khephren Thuram being eyed up by Jorg Schmadtke and Co. we’re not necessarily going to be throwing toys out of the pram just yet.
At 27 years of age too, talented as Palhinha is, he doesn’t necessarily fit the age profile well at Liverpool, particularly not whilst we’ve currently got such a chasm separating our senior operators and the likes of Stefan Bacjetic and Curtis Jones.
Provided we land the French duo in question, we’d be happy to call that a successful window as far as replenishing the midfield is concerned.
The work shouldn’t, and likely won’t, stop there, of course, with there remaining a clear need to bolster a backline that struggled somewhat last term.