Liverpool have been urged to ‘pack a lot of money’ if they wish to return to the table and seriously push for Edmond Tapsoba’s signature at the next available opportunity.
Christian Falk reported that Bayer Leverkusen’s decision to extend the player’s contract until the summer of 2028 was directly ‘intended’ to ‘fend off’ the Reds who continue to hold an interest.
“Bayer 04 Leverkusen have extended central defender Edmond Tapsoba’s contract until 2028,” the BILD reporter informed CaughtOffside in his exclusive Substack column.
“This is intended to fend off further attacks from Liverpool FC, who were always interested in the defender.
“Jörg Schmadtke can save himself the call in winter or pack a lot of money in his suitcase.”
The Merseysiders are understood to remain keen on a left-sided centre-half – a bill the 24-year-old doesn’t necessarily fit as a right-footed option in the backline.
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Should Liverpool heed Falk’s update? Time to go big for two centre-halves?
That’s not to suggest we should be completely dismissing right-footed centre-backs out of hand – quite the opposite in fact if Ibrahima Konate’s latest muscle injury has taught us anything.
As superb and dominant as the Frenchman is on the pitch, we simply can’t be trusting in the fitness of a player who was present for less than half the available league fixtures last term. Especially not whilst our system is so dependent on a mobile, positionally-aware player in his position.
Ideally, we’d really like to see this are, along with long-term cover for Virgil van Dijk, tackled in the next available window, though it remains to be seen how far Jurgen Klopp’s trust in his backup options will go and to what degree it would hinder such a search.
#Ep89 of The Empire of the Kop Podcast: EOTK Insider with Neil Jones🎙️