If Liverpool have any plans on landing Cheick Doucoure’s signature this summer, they’ll have to stump up some serious cash.
The same goes for Manchester City with regard to another highly-regarded Crystal Palace talent in Eberechi Eze, with Roy Hodgson’s outfit understood to have slapped £70m price tags on each player, according to Dom Smith at the Evening Standard, in the hopes of deterring both interested parties.
“Palace hope their £70m valuations of both players will be enough to fend off interest from City and Liverpool,” the reporter wrote.
“City plan to make one major midfield signing in the next week after Kevin De Bruyne suffered a serious injury and they lost Ilkay Gundogan to Barcelona.
Having agreed an extension for Michael Olise following a failed attempt from Chelsea to lure the player away from Selhurst Park, the thinking here from Palace is quite simple: price ’em out.
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With Ryan Gravenberch – not to mention the likes of Khephren Thuram and Manu Kone – bound to cost less (if not significantly so), we’d be far from surprised to see Anfield chiefs wash their hands of Doucoure and go full steam ahead with an alternative.
READ MORE: Klopp issues honest transfer window admission as deadline day nears
That would most certainly appear to be the case either way, regardless of the asking price, given how Liverpool are now focusing on a multi-functional operator in the middle of the park.
We have options available, though following an exclusive chat with Tobi Altschaffl, it would appear that our focus isn’t directed toward Gladbach but rather one of their fellow Bundesliga outfits in Bayern Munich with talks said to be now taking place this weekend.
A breakthrough, at the time of writing, for Gravenberch has yet to be secured, though don’t be surprised to see some movement on this front by Monday if Thomas Tuchel has indeed sanctioned the player’s exit this summer.
#Ep87 of The Empire of the Kop Podcast: EOTK Insider with Steve Kay & Tobi Altschäffl🎙️