One Italian reporter has outlined what’d be ‘a fair price’ for Liverpool to pay for a rumored transfer target from Serie A.
The Reds are understood to be ‘looking at’ a possible move for Morten Frendrup, according to Paul Gorst, and the Genoa midfielder was discussed by Gianluca Di Marzio in an interview with Danish outlet Tipsbladet.
The journalist said of the 22-year-old: “I would like to believe that Genoa will not sell him for less than €15m [£12.9m]. They will probably try to get €20m-€25m [£17.2m-£21.5m], but that is probably set too high. He lacks the ability to score goals, and therefore I would think that €15m is a fair price for Frendrup.”
The reporter added: “There will be interest from the Premier League and major Italian clubs. They like Frendrup and the fact that he never misses a game. He delivers steadily every single time.
“This is the kind of player any coach would want to have on his team. In my view, Frendrup has the level to play for all top clubs – he is a fantastic player.”
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Di Marzio is right to highlight Frendrup’s reliability in terms of selection – he has no recorded injuries on Transfermarkt and, until coming on as a substitute against Torino last weekend, had been ever-present for Genoa in Serie A this season.
The Danish midfielder is clearly someone in whom his manager Alberto Gilardino greatly trusts, and a tackling average of 3.9 per game would indicate why. As per FBref, that places the 22-year-old among the top 1% of positional peers across Europe’s five main leagues over the past year.
In today’s market, a fee of just under £13m would appear to constitute a bargain for a player of that age who’s already made 165 senior appearances and is playing regularly in the Italian top flight (Transfermarkt).
Even if Frendrup mightn’t go straight into Liverpool’s starting line-up, the sheer number of matches that the Reds play in a typical season would offer enough scope for rotation so that he’d get a fair chance to prove himself, and that’s even before injuries force Jurgen Klopp’s hand.
Anfield chiefs will firstly undertake all their due diligence on the midfielder before deciding whether or not to make an offer for him, but if they believe that the Dane would be a worthy acquisition, there definitely seems to be a glorious opportunity to snap him up for a modest price.