Fabrizio Romano hasn’t ruled out the possibility of Liverpool signing Aurelien Tchouameni this summer, although he believes it’d be a ‘really difficult’ transfer to pull off.
The Reds had been linked with the France midfielder when he was at AS Monaco in 2022 (TEAMtalk) before he ultimately chose to join Real Madrid.
Neil Jones told Empire of the Kop towards the end of June that interest from Anfield in the 23-year-old is ‘permanent’, with Jurgen Klopp seemingly undeterred by missing out on the player last year.
Romano was speaking to Born and Red when he discussed the latest on Liverpool and Tchouameni, saying that a move for him would be highly unlikely but not dismissing it entirely.
The Italian said: “For Tchouameni I think it’s going to be very complicated…from what I’m hearing, Real Madrid consider Tchouameni a very important player for their project.
“Never say never in the market but at the moment it looks very difficult, and I think part of Real Madrid’s plan is to have a very strong midfield for next season.
“When you say about the interest from Liverpool, this is more than interest, because one year ago Jurgen Klopp was pushing in a crazy way to have Aurelin Tchouameni. He called the player many times, he tried to convince the player and was really close to convincing the player.
“He tried his best but in the end, Tchouameni decided to go to Real Madrid because it was his dream since he was a kid, his biggest dream in life, and he considers Real Madrid the biggest club in the world. The truth is Klopp really tried very hard to sign Tchouameni.
“I think this is really difficult this summer for Liverpool, but, never say never.”
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There have been reports of Real Madrid possibly giving thought to offers in the region of €80m (£68.4m) if any such bid were to be presented (Sport, via Sport Witness), but whether Liverpool would spend that much on a third midfield recruit of the summer is the big question.
Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai cost almost £100m between them (Transfermarkt), so it’s hard to see the Reds splashing out huge sums on yet another player in the middle of the park.
There’s also the matter of whether Tchouameni himself would want to leave the Bernabeu after just a year, considering Romano’s assertion that the 23-year-old’s boyhood dream had been to play for Los Blancos.
Also, unlike another Liverpool-linked midfielder in Ryan Gravenberch, the Frenchman has been a regular starter for his club (Transfermarkt), so it’s hard to picture a scenario where he’d be pushing for an exit at this juncture.
It’s very unlikely to materialise this year at least, but it’s still somewhat encouraging that the Italian hasn’t completely dismissed the possibility of the Real Madrid star – who Paul Pogba previously hailed for his exceptional technique and physical qualities (Football Transfers) – becoming a Reds player.
You can view Romano’s comments on Tchouameni below (from 17:05), via Born and Red on YouTube: