Neil Jones has emphatically dismissed any ‘realistic’ possibility of Liverpool signing Kylian Mbappe this summer, off the back of sensational reports linking the Reds with a move for the Paris Saint-Germain superstar.
Journalist Edu Aguirre recently told El Chiringuito TV (via Sport Witness) that the Anfield giants had made a €200m (£170m) bid for the 24-year-old, who’s apparently been put up for sale now that he’s into the final year of his contract in the French capital.
However, The Independent‘s Miguel Delaney promptly reported that ‘sources with knowledge of the situation’ insisted the France captain isn’t a target for LFC.
Jones has now echoed his fellow journalist when he assessed the shock transfer links in his latest CaughtOffside Substack column.
He wrote: “Kylian Mbappe is a name we’ve often seen linked with Liverpool in recent times, but I can say now that there’s no chance of Liverpool signing him any time soon. If you look at the money he’s going to be moving for and how much he’d be earning, it’s just not realistic.”
While Jones claimed elsewhere in the same piece that Liverpool aren’t averse to spending sizeable fees on players they ‘really want’, any notion of them parting with £170m for one addition to the squad is fanciful at best.
Mbappe may be a phenomenal footballer with 279 goals at senior level across club and country (Transfermarkt), an incredible return for someone who’s yet to turn 25, but even if he were attainable for only £70m, he wouldn’t be someone the Reds desperately need.
Jurgen Klopp already has an abundance of potent attackers at Anfield, with the summer transfer focus fixed on other parts of the squad, while the Frenchman mightn’t be the best fit for the 56-year-old despite his world-class status.
Mbappe reportedly infuriated some of his PSG teammates with recent comments in which he slammed the Ligue 1 club (Men in Blazers), and there could be reservations among Liverpool fans, players and management about the idea of signing someone who could be a divisive figure in the dressing room.
As Jones says, it’s simply inconceivable that the Reds would fork out such a stratospheric amount on one player this summer, and the transfer budget would be put to far better use spread out across several additions covering multiple positions in the team.
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