Tim Sherwood has suggested that Liverpool could make an offer of over £100m for Leicester City’s Wesley Fofana, as reported by the Echo.
The 51-year-old made the audacious statement on Sky Sports in reference to the Reds’ injury crisis in defence, with Joel Matip set to be sidelined for the near future.
“It’s difficult, what’s out there? Do you go out there and get someone, and then when Gomez and Van Dijk are fit you end up with a player who shouldn’t be anywhere near a Liverpool shirt?” the former Spurs manager said. “Perhaps there’s someone on a short-term deal who’s out of contract now that they can bring in, I think they should do that.”
“Unless they really push the boat out and go get a Declan Rice, who can also play in midfield, but I don’t think that’s going to happen,” Sherwood added. “Or go and get a young one like Fofana and really push the boat out by offering £100m plus to test the arm of Leicester.”
There’s no doubting the talent of the young Frenchman, though a figure potentially rising above £100m for the 20-year-old seems rather ludicrous.
We wouldn’t entertain the possibility of signing the centre-half in January either way, with Brendan Rodgers unlikely to sanction the departure of a key player midway through the season.
That’s not even considering the fact that Liverpool’s hierarchy would undoubtedly not be willing to provide the funds necessary to capture Fofana’s signature – we can’t quite imagine it being £100m, but it’s a safe bet that he’d be expensive given his contract runs until 2025.
It’s clear for all to see that we are in desperate need of some short-term cover, at the very least to carry us through until Joel Matip returns to the side, presuming that Fabinho is back in action before that point.
Despite Jurgen Klopp’s general reluctance to do so, we may very well have to accept a short-term solution to our current dilemma.