Calling True or False on 3 Recent Liverpool Transfer Rumours
Less than a week into his reign on Merseyside, new Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has been linked with enough transfer targets to fill a Premier League matchday squad. While the German is likely to initiate an overhaul of sorts at the club's Melwood training facility, have any likely additions to the Reds' squad spawned from the back pages eagerly awaiting his intervention?
In the early stages of a new manager's tenure, it is difficult to pick apart the realistic targets from those dreamed up in colourless newspaper offices, but here we try our hand at calling true or false on Klopp's future selections.
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Here are three recent Liverpool transfer rumours, and we discuss whether or not they will be making their way to Anfield any time soon.
Andre Ayew
Andre Ayew is, without a doubt, one of the signings of the summer. Joining Swansea City on a four-year contract in June, according to BBC Sport, the Ghana international ended a nine-year spell with Ligue 1 challengers Marseille.
"The project that the club has for the future is very exciting, and when I spoke to the chairman and manager I felt this was the right place for me," Ayew told the Swans' official website on his arrival.
"I felt that my desire to play in the Premier League and wanting to grow as a player meant that Swansea was the best solution for me in every way."
While the commitment of a typical Premier League footballer is hollow, is Ayew ready to sacrifice this South Wales project after just six months?
That is what Tom Hopkinson of the Mirror would have you believe. "The Ghana star was twice targeted by the German during his time as boss of Borussia Dortmund, and Swansea bigwigs are convinced Klopp will try for a third time after taking over at Anfield," Hopkinson writes, before suggesting that the new Liverpool manager will "keep tabs" on Ayew's form before "before deciding whether or not to take his interest in the player any further."
Ayew has hit the ground running since swapping the Stade Velodrome for the Liberty Stadium, scoring four goals and creating one more in eight Premier League games.
The 25-year-old has largely been deployed as a right-winger under Garry Monk, and his tenacity, work rate and sheer determination in bursting through the lines towards goal would see him slot perfectly within Klopp's high-intensity attacking system—Ayew would be particularly welcome, given how short Liverpool are in terms of genuine wide options.
But with Ayew just six months into his Swansea contract when the January transfer window opens, and having signed a £60,000-a-week contract with Monk's side, according to Jason Burt of the Telegraph, he would not come cheap if Klopp firms up his "interest."
While Liverpool made a plethora of transfer mistakes during Brendan Rodgers' reign on Merseyside, it is unlikely that owner Fenway Sports Group would sanction such a costly deal for what is an unremarkable target.
FSG would be wiser to take cues from their Welsh counterparts and look to the free-agent market, with Andriy Yarmolenko, Sofiane Feghouli and Andre Carillo all coming to the end of their current deals with Dynamo Kyiv, Valencia and Sporting CP this season respectively.
Verdict: False
Ruben Neves
While Rodgers presided over a rebuilding process every summer, with many outgoings and many incomings, Klopp's arrival sees Liverpool take a more refined approach to the transfer market—in theory, at least.
"The hope within Anfield is that Klopp will invigorate Melwood and ensure no more overhauls are required," the Telegraph's Chris Bascombe wrote, shortly after Klopp's appointment.
"In future summer transfer windows Liverpool plan to be limiting their focus to two or three significant additions, recognising making seven or eight deals each season does not work and is not sustainable."
The notion of gradually improving one's squad with two or three signings, rather than a perennial overhaul, is one familiar with most great clubs, and with FSG looking to move Liverpool in a more trophy-laden direction under Klopp, this is to be expected in the future on Merseyside.
As such, when the Mirror's David Maddock reported Liverpool's interest in Porto's Ruben Neves, the prospect of the Portuguese midfielder joining the Reds seemed realistic:
"The new Liverpool FC manager sent scouts to watch defensive midfielder Ruben Neves play for his country’s Under-21 side against Hungary on Friday night.
The 18-year-old is a Porto regular, and well known to the Reds’ elite player development coach Pep Lijnders, who was in charge of development at the Portugal club before arriving at Anfield, and worked closely with the youngsters.
He identified Neves as an outstanding talent, and has recommended the midfielder to Klopp, who also had him on the radar at Borussia Dortmund last season.
"
Importantly, Maddock references this quality-over-quantity approach, claiming Klopp "will make one or two signings in key positions, with left-back his first priority, and the defensive midfield role another high on his to-do list."
Liverpool are in desperate need of a specialist defensive midfielder, while Alberto Moreno represents Klopp's only adequate option at left-back, so Maddock's claims are believable.
Though only 18 years old, Neves would add considerable quality to this Liverpool squad. In the Sergio Busquets mould of defensive midfielder, Neves pairs defensive steel with composure and technical prowess in the creative sector. A regular in Porto's starting line-up in both the Primeira Liga and the Champions League, Neves has already captained his side this season—highlighting his maturity as a young player.
"When I am managing a club I think each young player should smile, because the door is wide open for him," Klopp told Paul Wilson of the Guardian last week, underlining his trust in young players in his new position.
Neves would have no problem slotting into the German's Liverpool ranks.
Verdict: True
Continuing his evaluation of the virtues of youth and inexperience, Klopp told Wilson that "the best players in the world today are around already, you can see them.
"What I enjoy more is trying to identify the best players of tomorrow, who has the capacity to improve himself most, to take a young player from a small club in Poland and see what he can turn into."
With this being a clear reference to his moulding of a 21-year-old Robert Lewandowski into the world-class striker that is currently dominating the Bundesliga, the Champions League and the international stage—after plucking him from the obscurity of Polish side Lech Poznan—reports rather unsurprisingly linked Klopp with a move for his former Borussia Dortmund star.
Claiming a remarkable "exclusive," the Express' John Richardson wrote on Sunday that "Klopp is ready to stun the football world with a move for the 27-year-old Pole in the summer."
Incredibly, Richardson claims that Bayern Munich "face a fight" to hold on to Lewandowski at the end of 2015/16.
"Bayern will want at least £60 million for the player they took on a Bosman free much to Klopp’s disappointment, the German hailing the man he signed from Lech Poznan for just £3.5 million one of his greatest ever players," he continues, "Lewandowski has indicated that he would love to work under the charismatic Klopp again, especially now the 48-year-old has moved to the Premier League."
Liverpool supporters should be relieved that the most ridiculous rumour of the season has already been produced; there is very little chance that Lewandowski would join the Reds, despite Klopp's appointment.
This is a striker at his very peak, who has scored 16 goals in 11 appearances in all competitions for Bayern this season, as well as a further six in four games during Poland's European Championship qualifiers since the beginning of 2015/16.
Lewandowski is one of the finest No. 9s in world football, alongside Manchester City's Sergio Aguero and former Liverpool striker Luis Suarez, and while his connection with Klopp may give a slim measure of credibility to Richardson's "exclusive," he is highly unlikely to swap Munich for Merseyside.
After all, if Klopp held such significant sway over Lewandowski's career choices, why would he have left Dortmund for Munich in 2014?
Verdict: False
Statistics via WhoScored.com and Transfermarkt.co.uk.
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