Neil Jones confirmed that both Pep Lijnders and Liverpool’s coaching contingent continue to appreciate the talents of Inter Milan’s Nicolo Barella.
Sadly, the 26-year-old looks further away than ever from swapping Milan for Merseyside due to a couple of key factors, including the potential price-tag.
“We’ve also known for some time that the Liverpool coaching staff are huge admirers of Nicolo Barella. Pep Lijnders referenced the Inter Milan midfielder in his book, naming him as one of the best midfielders in Europe and someone they were keeping a close eye on when they came up against Inter in the Champions League,” Neil Jones exclusively informed CaughtOffside.
“The issue is how much he’d cost and how willing he is to come and play in the Premier League.
“There’s been some talk of Newcastle also being interested, but that was played down quite quickly and it seems he doesn’t fancy that move, so let’s see how open he is to playing in England.
“It would be a nice surprise, but at this stage I would be pretty surprised if Liverpool were to go on and sign Barella this summer.”
Sport Italia (via The Boot Room) claim that any interested party will need to fork out at least £68m for the Italian’s services – almost double what the Reds reportedly paid Brighton for Alexis Mac Allister.
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The presence of a release clause installed prior to the World Cup in Qatar was ultimately fortuitous for us, it has to be said, and we’d imagine that an asking price upwards of £50m would still have been met for a player of his quality.
This then begs the question as to why Liverpool shouldn’t be pulling out all the stops for the Champions League finalist this summer.
A potential reluctance to move to England could provide an easy answer. Alternatively, with Khephren Thuram and Manu Kone likely to cost less than £68m (even with a potential U21 European Championship-inspired price hike), it’s entirely plausible that we’ve hitched our wagon to different horses.
It remains to be seen just how Barella’s future will pan out, though it would seem a shame of epic proportions were he never to grace the Premier League.