Liverpool already planning to replace €300k-a-week star
· Yahoo Sports
Liverpool have made moves to replace a €300k-a-week star just months after agreeing a deal. It's an incredible turnaround.
Liverpool haven't completed their squad build, even if the transfer window closed this week. It was a strange ending to it, in all truth, as the club brought in Bradley Barcola for an awful lot of money but appeared to simply ignore glaring issues.
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The most glaring of those is in midfield. Liverpool do not have a reliable defensive midfielder. The only specialist is Wataru Endo, but he's been blighted by injuries over the last 12 months.
An elite midfielder who can stop counter-attacks, control the middle and play regularly? Liverpool don't have one. They haven't even tried to have one.
But that will apparently change in 2027. Ben Jacobs claims Liverpool have made a very, very early push to sign Lamine Camara from AS Monaco, despite not actually negotiating a deal.
The Reds have told Monaco and Camara that they'll move for him in 2027 and that they shouldn't complete any sort of deal with Chelsea. Importantly, they've signalled a willingness to at least get close to the €70m asking price - a massive one.
It's something seemingly confirmed by Monaco's sporting director, who, per the Guardian, said he's "very confident that soon [Camara] will have even better options and offers than the one he had yesterday [with Chelsea]".
And that's an interesting one. Jacobs makes it clear that Alexis Mac Allister is the one who would naturally make way for Camara but this is bigger than that. This is a sign that Liverpool are ready to inject a new elite, starting midfielder into their team.
That's notable because it comes just months after Ryan Gravenberch and Dominik Szoboszlai signed massive new long-term deals. De Telegraaf reports that the Dutchman is on over €300k per week. Szoboszlai is thought to be on similar.
But with Liverpool playing a flat midfield two, they can't both operate alongside Camara. One would have to make way as a guaranteed starter because make no mistake: the Reds aren't dropping €70m and giving guarantees to Camara without also guaranteeing him a starting role.
Chelsea, after all, can give him that after Enzo Fernández left for Manchester City. Liverpool can't unless they reduce the role of one of their big-money midfielders.
And we do expect they'll do just that. There is next to no evidence that a Gravenberch x Szoboszlai midfield pairing can work at the absolute highest level.
So if the plan is indeed to land Camara next year, one of the two of them will lose their guaranteed regular spot in the side. Of course, rotation minutes will still be there but a starring role? We imagine completely that it will ultimately be Camara plus one.
The coming months will decide who that will be.