Liverpool are off until April 3, when they’ll resume their Premier League campaign with a fixture at Arsenal. In the meantime, we’ve got some transfer talk to do, so let’s just dive right in, starting with the latest on the pursuit of Napoli’s Kalidou Koulibaly.
As you might have heard, Liverpool have had some injury issues in central defense this season. It was on all the websites. Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez and Joel Matip are all in the midst of long injury layoffs, and this season has taught the club, the hard way, just how much CB depth matters.
Liverpool moved midfielders Fabinho and Jordan Henderson into the position, and then they got hurt, meaning the Reds now have two position groups completely ruined instead of one. They essentially wagered double-or-nothing, and lost. Getting Koulibaly would be ideal, as the Senegalese would make the perfect partner for VVD.
According to Team Talk, Anfield are tabling their first bid for centre half, one who has been long coveted by arch-rivals Manchester United. Club legend and ESPN pundit Steve Nicol says it would be a “no-brainer” for Jurgen Klopp and company to get this deal done.
Elsewhere, current Arsenal man/Real Madrid loanee Martin Odegaard is making a lot of headlines this international break. He’s captaining a Norway side that is grabbing worldwide attention for their protest of the exploitation of migrant workers constructing facilities for the Qatar World Cup.
Odegaard has been the straw that stirs the drink at Arsenal, where he’s getting chances he simply would not get at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu. Zinedine Zidane will allow the Norwegian to leave this summer, reports Football Insider, and if that comes to fruition, it means competition for Arsenal in the race to acquire him permanently.
The Daily Star claims that Chelsea, Liverpool and PSG are all interested, and that is driving the valuation up from €35m to €55m, over a span of just a few weeks.
Watch this space, as it’s a transfer battle which could heat up and trigger a bidding war.
Finally, reports in Spain suggest that Liverpool are closing in on a deal which would acquire Wolverhampton Wanderers star man Adama Traore, for a cost of abound $62 million, and that this transfer could set off a transfer market chain reaction/domino theory in England and Spain this summer.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Tribune and SB Nation. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.