17 May 2017

Deal Close: Liverpool determined to finally seal £30m transfer for 'exceptional' title winner

Liverpool remain determined to secure a big money deal this summer for one of the club's on-loan fringe players.

After his heroics for Crystal Palace, Mamadou Sakho is nailed-on to leave Anfield this summer, and it appears that Palace - or any other interested club - will need to pay through the nose to secure a transfer. According to The Guardian this week:

"Liverpool will sanction Mamadou Sakho’s departure from Anfield this summer but will seek at least £30m".

When asked this week about the possibility of a transfer, Palace chairman Steve Parish confirmed that he wants to sign Sakho, and praised the French defender making a 'massive difference' at the club:

"It’s [a transfer] we’d like to do...but the money needs to work for us and Liverpool. I’m sure there’ll be a negotiation. We won some massive games with him".

Prior to his season-ending injury, Sakho helped Palace win 5 of the 7 games in which he featured, and helped the team to 4 clean sheets along the way. According to Parish, he's a 'really nice person, a big character, and he’s got the respect of all the players', but this cuts no ice with Jurgen Klopp, who seems hellbent to get him out of the club.

Klopp has spent the last year making Sakho look like a massive problem player by criticising him in public; kicking him off the summer tour; forcing him to train alone and/or with the U23s, and endlessly marginalising him from the first team squad.

Irrespective of Sakho's excellent performances at Palace, Klopp has sullied Sakho's reputation over the last year, and this has (IMO) weakened Liverpool's bargaining position. After all, every interested club knows that Klopp is desperate to get rid of Sakho, so why should they pay £30m?

Liverpool may be able to recoup the initial £20m outlay, but £30m+? Dream on.

^ Hailed by Gary Lineker as an 'exceptional defender'.


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