If footballers speaking more freely when chatting to media from their own country has become something of a time-honoured tradition, then Ibrahima Konate certainly kept up appearances last week.
As speculation surrounding the future of Khephren Thuram continued at pace, Konate was surprisingly frank in his admission that he would like to see the Nice midfielder join him at Liverpool.
Konate told RMC Sport: “I would be very happy for him to come to Liverpool and I would take him under my wing and I would do everything for him to progress and become the player he wants to become.
"Khephren is like my little brother, he's someone I saw growing up. I was with his big brother in the training centre, but I saw him grow. I saw him perform and progress at a level...It was incredible.
"Even when he came to the France team for his first selection. I saw him at the training and I was really surprised by his size and his technical ease.
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"When I was in Leipzig and I signed for Liverpool, many people said that it was too early, that it was not the right choice. In the end, I proved all these people wrong so you shouldn't listen to people. If Khephren has the opportunity to come to a club like Liverpool, I think he will be surprised [by] the enthusiasm that will come behind him."
Later that week, Thuram's agent, Rafaela Pimenta, set tongues wagging when she posted a photo of her at the Nice headquarters. If the Brazilian solicitor was possibly taken aback by how much her social media activities piqued Liverpool transfer interest when she posted a picture of herself outside Anfield back in January, the representative of both Ryan Gravenberch and Thuram was maybe playing a more deliberate game last week.
How much of that was for her own amusement, only those close to Pimenta will know, but the post inevitably sparked talk that Liverpool were closing in on a deal for 22-year-old Thuram as part of that much-discussed midfield rebuild.
Thuram, who is the son of 1998 World Cup winner Lilian, was an outstanding performer for Nice in France's top division last term. His rangy, powerful style is unlike anything else available to Jurgen Klopp in his midfield department.
According to scouting tool FBref, Thuram ranks in the 94 percentile for progressive carries and 91 for successful take-ons, painting the picture of a strong midfield dribbler, whose technical ability is meshed with an imposing 6ft 4inch frame.
That pen picture is backed up by the numbers around his passing statistics that place him as low as the 47 percentile for passes attempted and at 70 for passes completed.
Maybe the most intriguing aspect of the scouting tools assessing Thuram's style of play is the contrast in midfielders who are deemed 'similar' however.
Comparisons to Nicolo Barella at Inter and Barcelona's Gavi are likely to be greeted with enthusiasm from Reds supporters, but less so when the youngster is compared to Alex Iwobi at Everton. Perhaps that variety sums up how much of a unique and dynamic midfielder the France Under-21 is if little else?
Since making 16 appearances in his first season with Nice in the 2019/20 campaign, Thuram has gone on to establish himself as a key player for the French outfit and has now made 138 in total since joining them as a teenager from Monaco.
"Khephren's fantastic," former Nice boss Didier Digard told RMC Sport last season. "He's very hardworking, very attentive. On rest days he's at the training centre. He recovers quickly for back-to-back matches and completes high-intensity training.
“He listens and applies himself. He has room for improvement and he's in demand. He simply eats up video analysis, additional sessions. He also advises others, because he takes on a leadership role. He's also discovering himself as a person. "He's already in the France team, but I'm convinced that he'll have a very big career. But there must still be a little bit in Nice to go to continue his progress."
With Liverpool looking to further their midfield restructuring following the signing of Alexis Mac Allister earlier this month, Thuram sits near the top of the shortlist as he gets set to play a part for France at the U21s European Championships, which got underway on Wednesday.
Thuram, whose brother is France international Marcus, says he became a midfielder because his father was a defender and his sibiling preferred to play up front. Having grown up in Italy where Thuram senior played for Parma and Juventus, Khephren, who says he was named after a pharaoh, learned to perfect his English at an American school in Paris.
“What do I want to achieve? For me the most important thing is to be the best version of myself," he told The Telegraph earlier this year.
"As a man, as a football player. I don’t know exactly where that is going to take me but I want to be the best version of myself. If that is to play somewhere my whole life then fine. If it is to play at one of the top clubs then I want to achieve that.”
With Liverpool taking a firm look, it could yet be an achievement he is able to tick off.
When you can see Thuram in action for France's' U21s:
France v Italy, June 22
France v Norway, June 25
France v Switzerland, June 28
All kick-off times are 7.45pm.
