Liverpool eye Virgil van Dijk replacement in £60m Bundesliga deal that is already agreed
Liverpool will need to replace Virgil van Dijk at some point, have they already identified who will?
It was a decision that came back to haunt Liverpool and one that could cost Liverpool again in the future.
With Mohamed Salah not scoring as many goals or creating as many chances for his teammates as he did last season, the defence needed to be tight. Instead, it has been every bit as inconsistent as the forward line. With both full back positions being a problem and Virgil van Dijk having to babysit the error prone Ibrahima Konate for most of the season with no real alternative option available due to injury issues.
Liverpool made Jarell Quansah mistake
The sliding doors transfer window saw Marc Guehi’s completed transfer collapse when Crystal Palace pull the plug after Jarell Quansah was allowed to join Bayer Leverkusen. Had either move gone the right way, Liverpool wouldn’t be back to square one this summer.
According to Bild, via Bulinews.com, Quansah is going to return to Anfield. Not this summer when his release clause is £80m but next year when it is “only” £60m and when Van Dijk’s contract finishes. Richard Hughes got a lot of things right, but Quansah could easily have gone out on loan instead of being £30m out of pocket to sign a player who has long looked like he has the ability to be a regular at Anfield either as a centre-half or right-back.
What Quansah has said about his time at Liverpool
The 22-year old has gone from strength to strength in the Bundesliga but credited his time at Liverpool as being key to his development, via The Guardian: “I’ve always learned off some of the best players around me at Liverpool and it’s been so good for my career,” he says. “But as a young centre-back, you need games and I’m going to be needing hundreds of games to be where I want to be.
“I just wanted game time and when you are at a team like Liverpool, it’s not promised because there are world-class players all over the pitch. I wanted somewhere where they can trust that I might make mistakes at times but they will look under that and see I can keep pushing and pushing.” He might not be world class just yet, but if his progress continues at his current rate, he won’t be far away.