Fabrizio Romano has outlined what Liverpool must do if they’re to sign one of their reported transfer targets in January.
The Reds continue to be linked with Goncalo Inacio, who’s also believed to be of interest to Arsenal, and the Sporting Lisbon defender has a release clause of €60m (£52m) in his contract (A Bola).
Spanish outlet AS had claimed that prospective suitors could potentially land the 22-year-old if they offer 75% of that figure up front, with the rest in add-ons, but the Italian transfer guru has appeared to contradict those reports.
In his Daily Briefing for CaughtOffside, in which he also discussed Liverpool’s links with Bayer Leverkusen’s Piero Hincapie, Romano wrote: “Liverpool have also been one of a number of teams linked with Goncalo Inacio, but the only way to sign him is to pay his €60m release clause to Sporting and no one has approached Sporting until now.
“Let’s see if that changes soon, but for now there is nothing advanced for Liverpool with either Hincapie or Inacio.”
With Romano being one of the most trusted journalists in the business when it comes to transfer rumours, we’d be inclined to go along with his assessment of the situation regarding Inacio.
The Daily Mail reported earlier this week that, while Liverpool have no ‘concrete’ targets in mind for January, they’re open to the possibility of doing business if the right deal become available, with a firm eye seemingly being kept on the Portuguese top flight.
The Reds have previous when it comes to cherry-picking top talents from the Primeira Liga, having done so with the signings of Luis Diaz (Porto) and Darwin Nunez (Benfica) in 2022, so it’s very much possible that they could embark down that particular path again next month.
Many LFC fans are eager for the club to bring in a new centre-back in January following the anterior cruciate ligament injury to Joel Matip; and having previously been described as Jurgen Klopp’s ‘number one target’ by Steve Kay (EOTK Insider show), Inacio could well be the player that Jorg Schmadtke seeks to deliver as he seemingly approaches the end of his brief spell as sporting director at Anfield.
If the 22-year-old is to swap Lisbon for Liverpool, it seems clear that the Merseysiders will need to stump up the full release clause figure of £52m – not an inconsiderable sum, but one which could give us a top-quality central defender for the next decade, if all goes well.
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