Liverpool are in talks to sign Arthur Melo on loan from Juventus ahead of tonight’s transfer deadline.
Despite previously saying that Liverpool did not need midfield reinforcements, Jurgen Klopp admitted last week that the Reds may need other options in the middle of the park. The comments came as Klopp faced an injury crisis in midfield.
Klopp said: "It must be the right player. Some players are just unavailable, that's how it is, but if we can do something, and if we will do something, then we are 100 per cent convinced about it. If we are not convinced, then we will not do it. That's the situation.
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"If it's the right player, we need him. If it's not the right player, we don't need him. "I'm the one who said we don't need a midfielder, and now we need a midfielder.
"You were all right and I was wrong. That is the situation. But that specific point doesn't change it. If we do something, then it has to be the right one."
And now following another injury to Jordan Henderson during last night’s dramatic 2-1 home Premier League win over Newcastle United, it appears the Reds are ready to make a move for the Brazil international. The ECHO understands that the 26-year-old has been identified as a possible solution to the Reds' midfield problems.
Arthur, who is a defensive midfielder by trade, has been in and out of the Juventus team since joining in the summer of 2020, making 31 appearances last season of which 16 were starts. He has yet to feature this season and didn't take part in the Italian team's pre-season tour.
The Brazilian had previously spent two years at Barcelona, where he also failed to nail down a place in the Catalan side’s starting line-up. The midfielder also featured as a late substitute in the famous 4-0 Champions League semi-final second leg defeat at Liverpool in May 2019.
But ahead of his impending Anfield arrival, not only will Arthur have to win Liverpool fans over, and prove a Barcelona great wrong. That is because before Arthur made his big-money move to Juve, Luis Suarez, who remains Spain's only player to have won the Ballon d'Or, doing so back in 1960, claimed that he did 'nothing' at the Nou Camp and was happy to see him leave in a stinging attack.
"This boy, Arthur, has done nothing so far," he told Cadena SER Catalunya – via Spanish publication Marca – back in May 2020.
"Do you think that what Arthur has done so far could not have been done by [Carles] Alena? When they talk about Arthur in Italy, it seems like they're selling Pele.
"It seems they haven't watched the games. I apologise to the boy, but he hasn't done great things to say: ‘What a player we've brought from Brazil’."
It is being widely claimed that Arthur is due on Merseyside around lunchtime and expected to undergo a medical this afternoon. The transfer deadline is at 11pm in England.
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