As the countdown continues to the transfer window closing at the end of the month, so decreases the likelihood of Liverpool bringing in a new midfielder.
While he would undoubtedly have preferred otherwise, Jurgen Klopp has been consistent in his belief there will be no further reinforcements during this window following the arrival of forward Cody Gakpo from PSV Eindhoven for an initial £37million.
Not that the Reds aren't keeping tabs on a number of potential future signings.
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Klopp's admiration for Jude Bellingham has long been public, the Reds boss most recently discussing the talents of the Borussia Dortmund and England midfielder over Christmas.
"If you mention to someone who has no clue about football or who knows about football and has not watched it for a while ‘how old do you think Jude Bellingham is?’, I don’t think anyone would get even close to his age," he said. "They would say 28 or 29 because he plays so mature.
"With all the things he has and things he can improve, to describe him I would say the things he can do are difficult to learn, and the things he can improve are easy to learn. So, yes, he is a really good player."
Liverpool want to sign Bellingham in the summer, and will continue to pursue the move despite the player being valued in the region of £130m by Dortmund. But he isn't the only target, with Wolverhampton Wanderers midfielder Nunes, who the Reds have been tracking for some time since his days at Sporting Lisbon, among those on the shortlist.
There would have been little reason to bring Nunes to Anfield this month given players are eligible to be registered for a maximum of three clubs in the same season but can only play for two. The Portugal international already played for Sporting this campaign before moving to Wolves for a club record £38m in August.
But it was intriguing that Klopp saw fit to mention Nunes in his post-match assessment of Liverpool's 1-0 FA Cup third round replay win at Wolves on Tuesday evening in which the midfielder was introduced by the home side for the second half.
"We dropped a bit deeper, I didn't like that too much, Wolves came up a little bit," said Klopp.
"In the moment when you let (Ruben) Neves in the game and it changes everything pretty much and then when Nunes is on the pitch as well then it's like twice as difficult and we did really well."
It may only have been a slight nod of appreciation in the direction of Nunes, but it will surely have been noted by the player. He remains very much on Liverpool's radar.
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