Liverpool are navigating uncertain times off the pitch at Anfield as FSG look to sell the club, with confirmation that both sporting director Julian Ward and director of research Ian Graham are set to leave the Reds following earlier this week.
Ward ’s resignation was a shock, given he had only succeeded Michael Edwards in the post last summer. And while Graham handed in his notice in the close-season, the exits of both creates a gasping void in Liverpool ’s recruitment team.
Yet it doesn’t change the fact that the Reds are in need of a midfield revamp and indeed plan to overhaul their engine room in 2023, following on from the restructure of their attack in 2023 which saw Luis Diaz, Darwin Nunez and Fabio Carvalho all join the club as Sadio Mane, Divock Origi and Takumi Minamino departed.
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Jurgen Klopp currently boasts 10 senior midfielders at Anfield, yet the majority of his options are a combination of ageing, injury-prone and/or out of contract. Meanwhile, vice-captain James Milner, Naby Keita, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Juventus loanee Arthur Melo aren’t currently contracted to remain at Anfield next season.
Therefore, regardless of who owns Liverpool Football Club and who heads up their recruitment team, such business is desperately needed in the months ahead. Whether the January transfer window comes too soon to address it, only time will tell, but having seen the Reds move early to bring in Diaz last winter, it’s obvious what Kopites will be hoping for in the new year.
Jude Bellingham is the obvious primary target, with Liverpool’s long-standing interest in the England international well-documented. He is believed to be Klopp’s first-choice option to strengthen his midfield, though the Reds won’t be the only side looking to sign the 19-year-old next year.
With Borussia Dortmund adamant they would not consider selling the teenager until 2023, the likes of Liverpool, Man City and Real Madrid have been left to monitor his situation from afar ahead of pouncing when the time comes. Given such rival interest, sceptics aren’t convinced the Reds will come out on top in such a transfer battle, given they can’t compete with their rivals’ finances.
But that doesn’t mean Liverpool are down and out, despite almost daily, and often contrasting, updates about Bellingham’s future emerging as he shines for England at the World Cup.
Earlier this week Sky Sports Germany's Florian Plettenberg suggested that the Reds are willing to spend up to €150m to sign Bellingham as he reiterated the midfielder’s status as their first-choice midfield target. Yet he’d curiously also put forward two South American midfielders as primary alternatives.
While no names were given, it’s easy to speculate given the midfielders Liverpool have repeatedly found themselves linked with in recent months - Ecuador’s Moises Caicedo, having impressed in the Premier League with Brighton & Hove Albion, and Argentina’s Enzo Fernandez.
The Reds found themselves linked with both players in the summer as they delayed revamping their midfield until next year, though eyebrows were raised at both links, given the former only had six months of Premier League experience after a season-long loan with Belgian side Beerschot was cut short the previous January, while the latter given had only just joined Benfica in the summer.
Yet that doesn’t mean they hadn’t done enough to attract the interest of Liverpool scouts, and have continued to be monitored despite the imminent changes in the club’s recruitment team. While moves for both were dismissed last summer, a season down the line and that could change very quickly as both Caicedo and Fernandez continue to impress.
Now the Reds are in need of more than one new midfielder. Whether that means they will sign more than one of the aforementioned players, or if the latter pair are indeed the speculated pair at the top of their shortlist alongside Bellingham, only time will tell.
In the meantime, excited Kopites will inevitably keep an eye on their progress just in case of potential swoops, with Fernandez in particular leaving them licking their lips at such a prospect following his display in Argentina’s 2-0 win over Mexico to keep their World Cup knockout stages hopes alive.
The 21-year-old entered the field just before the hour-mark. Within minutes Argentina had the lead, and late on he sealed victory with one of the goals of the tournament. Receiving a short corner from Lionel Messi, he sidestepped a defender with a smart stepover before opening up his body and bending the ball into the corner from the edge of the goal.
Okay Enzo, you have our attention. Though Liverpool scouts will thankfully not form such knee-jerk assessments off the back of one stunning goal.
Yet, having seemingly first caught the eye with River Plate, you can see why Fernandez could be a player of interest. Still only 21, his best days are very much ahead of him while he is comfortably playing as a number six, a number eight or a number 10.
Meanwhile, he has three goals and five assists from his first 24 appearances for Benfica, since his €18m summer move. Throw in 10 goals and seven assists from 28 games in his final season with River Plate, along with an impeccable injury record, and he’s starting to tick Reds boxes.
He'd win the 2021 Argentina Primera Division with River Plate, and has already established himself as one of his nation’s most promising young talents along with Julian Alvarez. But while Man City directly signed the forward off the back of such displays, Liverpool didn’t act on reported interest as Benfica moved for Fernandez.
But he could now follow a recent well-trodden path, with the Reds making the most of the Portuguese market in recent years. Following the success of Cristinao Ronaldo, the likes of Ederson, Jan Oblak, Bernardo Silva, Joao Felix, Joao Cancelo, Ruben Dias, Eder Militao and Bruno Fernandes have all moved on to flourish in major European leagues. And the Reds have their own success stories from Liga Portugal, having brought in Diaz, Nunez and Diogo Jota.
After signing Diaz, Klopp paid tribute to Reds assistant manager Pep Lijnders and elite development coach Vitor Matos, who had both previously worked at Porto, with the latter, having been at the club when the winger was signed from Colombian side Junior de Barranquilla, for first alerting Liverpool to the Colombia international and helping engineer the switch to Anfield.
"We cannot watch all interesting players closely, me or the coaches; our scouts are doing that and that's what we have the department for," the German said. "Very often we just get a hint that we should have a closer look at him or him and we do that.
"That doesn't mean he's a player for us in the next transfer window but with Porto obviously it is different because of Pep and Vitor (Matos). I'm not sure but Vitor probably watches all Porto games and Pep a lot of them, and they were very early and told me, 'That's a very interesting boy there and we should have a closer look'. Since then we are watching him.
"It is part of the process. We cannot constantly watch the whole world but the club is pretty busy with that. If there's a good player or a real talent out there, we know him. We just have to make decisions on whether it is interesting for us or not, do we have somebody in that position or not, do we have someone coming up in that position, do we have a young player to follow on? All these kind of things. That's the process."
In stark contrast to the days when the likes of Geoff Twentyman and Tom Saunders would scour the UK for talent first-hand before altering Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley and Joe Fagan, it is normal for initial scouting to be done virtually these days. But Lijnders and Matos’ links to Porto and Portugal both aided Liverpool when it came to moving for Diaz.
Indeed, it was a similar story when the Reds signed Diogo Jota from Wolves. When the Reds were deliberating over a three-man attacking shortlist in the summer of 2020, it was Lijnders who spoke to trusted allies at Porto for a glowing reference on the forward, who eventually fought off competition from Ismaila Sarr and Jonathan David to join the club in a £45m deal.
Liverpool's number two spent eight years at Porto in his formative days as a coach and spoke to several at the biggest club in Portugal about Jota as interest started to gather pace behind the scenes.
"Through his contacts back in Portuguese football, Pep was given glowing references on the player's character and he believes [Jota] can become a difference maker within our framework over time," said one source at the time.
Meanwhile, with Ward having his own close ties in Portugal and with Benfica, the Reds were also able to quickly complete a deal for Nunez, which could end up being worth a club-record £85m. While the sporting director might depart in the summer, you’d hope if Liverpool do move for Fernandez, he can put such relations to good use one last time before his premature exit.
“Luis Diaz was the best player in the Portuguese league and we got him,” Lijnders said in the summer. “After he left, Darwin Nunez was the best player in the Portuguese league and we got him. He’ll be fine here.”
Perhaps Fernandez will be the next player to join such a list. Either way, Liverpool’s connections ensure they are better-placed than most to judge Fernandez’s talents from outside of Portugal. And while the midfielder will have now captured the imagination at the World Cup, if the Reds do indeed move for him in the future, the groundwork behind such a transfer deal will have started long before Qatar 2022.
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