Liverpool have a couple of reasons to be keeping a close eye on Serie A just at the moment.
The Reds don’t tend to do a lot of shopping in Italy, but when they have, it has usually paid off handsomely.
Ignoring the failure that was last season’s loan deal for Arthur Melo, Liverpool’s last two signings from the peninsula have been Mohamed Salah and Alisson Becker, both signed from Roma.
The Reds have also been urged to potentially look at hiring their conqueror in the Europa League, Gian Piero Gasperini. However, we now know that that isn’t going to happen.
That doesn’t mean that Liverpool’s next coach can’t be from Serie A, though. Thiago Motta has again been put forward as a potential surprise appointment, while Simone Inzaghi has been linked, too. And now, journalist Fabrizio Romano has claimed that the Reds have been watching goings on in Italy for a while.
Liverpool watching Teun Koopmeiners
Liverpool’s two games against Atalanta were more proof that Serie A is making a bit of a comeback. Across the three European competitions this season, Italy boasts three semi-finalists.
Atalanta’s win over the Reds was the most impressive of all, though. And right at the heart of it was midfielder Teun Koopmeiners.
Koopmeiners recently made headlines in Italy for slightly more controversial reasons. The Dutchman publicly claimed that he was looking at leaving La Dea. This came after months of being linked with plenty of clubs, including – pretty heavily – Liverpool. And speaking on The Debrief podcast, Romano says the Reds have indeed been watching Koopmeiners. But they’re far from alone in that.
“I think we have many rumours about English clubs because they are scouting the boy on a regular basis,” reports the journalist. “It happened with Chelsea in recent months but also Liverpool for a long time. Someone from Man United has also been there to scout Atalanta talents multiple times.
“I think there is interest from the Premier League because in general the boy is really attractive but at the moment it’s not something that’s really concrete, the negotiations with Chelsea or any other club.
“From what I understand we are really at the early stages. Koopmeiners wants to try something different, he wants a different opportunity, so leaving Atalanta in the summer transfer window. There is still strong interest from Juventus from what I’m hearing, he’s one of their dream targets.”
Should Liverpool sign Koopmeiners
Although he seems to have earned plenty of plaudits for his displays against Liverpool, we must admit that we weren’t all that enamoured with Koopmeiners.
His standout moments across the two ties were missing a great one-on-one chance at Anfield and putting in an extremely late sliding challenge on Alexis Mac Allister in the return leg.
Aside from that, Koopmeiners clearly played his part in stifling Liverpool. But we didn’t see enough to justify the reported £60m price-tag.
In our opinion, now 26, the Netherlands international may have missed the boat on a move to the Reds. He’ll likely end up at a big side this summer, but we don’t think it will be Liverpool.