Liverpool are still yet to make a concrete move during this summer’s transfer window.
The Reds often like to do their business early when it comes to recruiting players. FSG don’t mess around in the market.
However, things are a little different at Anfield this year. With Arne Slot having only just arrived as the new head coach, there are other things on the agenda.
Slot is still yet to fully assemble his coaching team for Liverpool and there are also contract situations which need sorting out.
With all of that going on though, there is still scope to add to the first-team squad. First on the agenda; bolstering the defence.
Liverpool pushing to make ‘marquee signing’
Liverpool’s defence is in need of some cosmetic surgery. Although the individual players themselves are good, there is a little more needed.
Virgil van Dijk is still the best centre-back in the world for our money, but the captain is coming up to 33 and has one year left on his contract.
By his side, Ibrahima Konate has been in poor form and cannot seem to stay fit for a full season. Jarell Quansah looks an incredible prospect but is young and needs time while Joe Gomez is now more utilised as a full-back.
With all of that in mind, it is no surprise to see Liverpool linked with the likes of Lille defender Leny Yoro.
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Yoro is one of the most exceptional prospects in European football and the Reds are sensing there might be a chance to get him. Further links have come to Bologna centre-back Riccardo Calafiori who himself looks like being a potential superstar.
And speaking to The Redmen TV, journalist Lewis Steele has suggested that when Liverpool do finally pull the trigger on a defender this summer, it’s going to be an ‘exciting’ one.
“I think they’ll be active but they’re not going to be signing loads of players,” says Steele when asked about Liverpool’s transfer plans. “It’s going to be a quality over quantity sort of summer.
“I think they’ll probably have to sign a goalkeeper, because realistically one of those two [Adrian and Kelleher] is going to leave and they’ll probably sign a defender,” he adds.
“That’s obviously the marquee signing of the summer as it were. That will be the most exciting one whoever that turns out to be. There’s loads of names on the list and I’m sure that Liverpool are making enquires left, right and centre.”
Are Liverpool close to making a signing?
By this point of the summer we’ve usually become accustomed to Liverpool having one or two players through the door already.
This time last year, for example, Alexis Mac Allister was already two weeks into his career with the Reds, while Dominik Szoboszlai was another fortnight away from joining.
12 months on and it doesn’t look especially likely that Liverpool will have even one signing through the door by the first week of July.
Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean things aren’t going on behind the scenes. Journalist Fabrizio Romano confirmed on Friday that Liverpool have ‘made some steps’ towards signing Yoro.
Although Yoro looks more likely to join Real Madrid, that does at least signal intent from the Reds. With Calafiori – and other potential targets – away at Euro 2024 though, it may be a while before anything truly comes to fruition.