Six weeks into Arne Slot’s time as Liverpool new head coach and it remains all quiet in the transfer window. The Reds boss, as outlined in his press conference last week, is keen to get an up-close look at the squad he has inherited before major decisions on recruitment are taken with new sporting director Richard Hughes, who arrived from Bournemouth and started alongside Slot on June 1.
Liverpool‘s squad is the envy of most and having made the significant step up from Eredivisie runners-up Feyenoord, Slot wants to explore the breadth of depth of his new team before any real calls are made and Hughes spoke last week about an “opportunistic” approach to signings this summer with the Reds once more in possession of Champions League football and its accompanying riches.
It’s a idealistic way of operating and in a perfect world, Slot would be able to run the rule over his players ahead of finally deciding where needs strengthening but with so many of his key men either still involved in international action or enjoying some well-earned end-of-season holiday times, the new head coach won’t be able to see what he has at his disposal until just before the season starts.
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That presents a prospect of Liverpool needing to negotiate for new arrivals at a time when the season is already underway, which is fraught with tactical and technical issues when it comes to getting ideas across as quickly as possible on the pitch itself. It’s why the club have always tended to stay away from the madness of deadline day as much as possible, even if long-standing target Ryan Gravenberch could only be completed in the closing hours from Bayern Munich last summer.
So far then, little movement appears imminent but the news this week that Manchester United have an agreement in principle with Lille for defender Leny Yoro has understandably piqued the interest of Liverpool fans.
The Reds are big admirers of the 18-year-old defender and have targeted him independent of any wider search for long-term centre-back this summer. They feel his age, level of quality and experience already mark him out as a potential star of European football’s future and with his contract now in its final year, the idea of it being an “opportunistic” deal, to use Hughes’s words last week, is one that should appeal.
The major stumbling block, of course, is that Real Madrid are quite keen too and the young Frenchman is said to have designs on becoming the latest Bernabeu addition to join a squad that already contains France internationals Eduardo Camavinga, Aurelien Tchouameni and a certain Kylian Mbappe, who arrives from Paris Saint-Germain on a free transfer.
With Vinicius Junior, Rodrygo and Jude Bellingham also in the ranks of the current Champions League holders, it is quite the formidable squad that is being built for the next decade in the Spanish capital. Clearly, the competition is strong for Liverpool when it comes to los Blancos.
But should United’s agreement be enough to tempt Liverpool to the negotiating table? The Reds have an excellent working relationship with Yoro’s Gestifute agency, having dealt with them for a number of years over talks regarding Diogo Jota, Fabinho and Darwin Nunez, and Liverpool will have privately made it know that they can offer a high-calibre alternative for Yoro should Real Madrid refuse to firm up their interest.
At the age of 18, it is perhaps being thought in Madrid that they can bide their time over Yoro and snare him on a free transfer next summer when he will be more polished and less expensive but if they are refusing to firm up their admiration then Lille will be desperate to sell to the highest bidder as the fear of losing a potentially elite-level talent for nothing next year edges ever closer.
Should that transpire there might well be questions asked if Liverpool allow the defender to slip through their grasp and wind up at Old Trafford. To lose someone to Real Madrid has become habitual given the movements of Tchouameni and Bellingham in the last couple of years and there is likely a quiet, reluctant acceptance that it sometimes can’t be avoided when the 15-time European Cup holders come calling.
At a time when Liverpool are arguably a more settled outfit than United, though, the idea of missing out on a key target to such a fierce rival would be viewed dimly. The Reds lost little sleep over Moises Caicedo’s decision to choose Chelsea last summer and their failure to land Romeo Lavia, who also opted for the Londoners, barely even registers to supporters now after the Belgian’s torrid, injury-riddled campaign.
But to lose out to United on a player who clearly has plenty of admirers in the corridors of power might lead to questions being asked at a time when a new-look regime is seeking to put its best foot forward. Liverpool, we’re told, are hugely interested in Yoro. We’re about to find out how much.