Liverpool have allegedly tabled a second bid worth £68.5m for Rodrygo’s services.

This comes courtesy of Nacional (via Sky Sports), with it now claimed the club has improved on its first offer of £51.4m.

It’s understood, however, that Real Madrid president Florentino Perez won’t entertain the forward’s exit unless bidding reaches £85.7m.

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Is Rodrygo Mo Salah’s heir?

The Brazilian can ply his trade across the forward line, though he is primarily a right-sided winger.

With Mo Salah’s future far from certain amid ongoing reports of Saudi interest, it remains to be seen how our recruitment team will approach this conundrum.

It’s worth bearing in mind the Egyptian will likely have little interest in leaving truly competitive football – with all due respect to Saudi football – whilst still in his peak years.

In that sense, signing the 23-year-old as an understudy to the Champions League winner would make a certain degree of sense.

What do the stats say?

The Brazilian international has enjoyed a reasonably prolific season in Madrid. He’s registered 21 goal contributions in 41 games across all competitions in 2023/24.

Using Salah as a barometer of attacking proficiency, Rodrygo compares well for touches in the opponent’s box. He ranks in the 97th percentile compared to our No.11’s 98th percentile score, according to FBref.

Non-penalty xG and xAG are still a long way off our top-scorer’s levels.

That said, you’d expect there to be some serious potential to be realised at only 23 years of age.

Should Liverpool commit major money to Rodrygo?

It all very much depends, as ever, on what Liverpool’s budget looks like this summer.

There’s also Salah’s future to factor in ahead of his contract expiring in 2025.

Should the Egyptian look to take a big paycheque bump in the Middle East, we’d likely be left with the necessary cash.

If our record-breaking wide man stays, of course, we arguably have bigger priorities to meet.

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Florentino Perez is one the latest names in football to stick his oar in when it comes to the future of PSG’s highly sought-after forward, Kylian Mbappe.

The Real Madrid chief was predictably coy when discussing the Frenchman and Real Madrid’s reported interest in quotes relayed by Fabrizio Romano on X (formerly Twitter).

Florentino Pérez: “Kylian Mbappé to Real Madrid? This is not the day to comment on that topic”.

“Real Madrid are enjoying these players”. pic.twitter.com/yxxxe5eH9r

— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) January 14, 2024

Despite the finances of a potential deal involving the 25-year-old being mind-boggling enough without getting a transfer fee involved, Liverpool continue to be one of the main clubs tipped to throw their hat into the ring.

READ MORE: Pep Lijnders says Liverpool have an ‘incredible’ 22-year-old who makes a huge difference on the pitch

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What are the reports saying?

Jason Burt of The Telegraph recently published a piece illustrating Mbappe’s outrageous wage demands.

Allegedly, £64.5m a year AFTER TAX, for those wondering.

Just to be clear, in case there are any lingering doubts over Empire’s position on the matter – there is no chance of Liverpool committing to chasing the World Cup winner this summer.

He’s a truly fabulous footballer and we’ve no doubt he’ll make waves wherever he does end up beyond the summer of 2024.

But it sure as hell won’t be at Anfield. Sorry!

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According to reports from Spain, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp is believed to have Federico Valverde in his sights at Anfield, but the Real Madrid midfielder certainly won’t come cheap.

El Nacional have claimed that the Uruguayan could be jettisoned by the LaLiga giants, amid the imminent arrival of Jude Bellingham and a loss of form since returning from the World Cup.

The Reds are already believed to have told Los Blancos that they’d be interested in signing the 24-year-old for an initial €60m (£51.5m), while also communicating a willingness to bid €80m (£68.7m) up front plus €20m (£17.2m) in add-ons.

However, Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has insisted that the 14-time champions of Europe won’t entertain any offers of less than €100m (£85.9m) straight.

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In all honesty, reports of Liverpool potentially signing Valverde could be taken with a pinch of salt, particularly for the figures being quoted.

The amount that Perez is reportedly seeking for the Uruguayan is only slightly less than the £88.5m that Real Madrid are set to pay initially for Bellingham (The Guardian), a player with whom the Reds had been strongly linked until ending their interest due to the extortionate sums involved.

In a similar vein, Fabrizio Romano told CaughtOffside that the Anfield club ‘won’t do anything crazy’ regarding Josko Gvardiol, for whom RB Leipzig apparently want at least £85m (Daily Express).

Despite his supposed decline in form over the past few months, Valverde would still be a splendid player for Liverpool to have.

His manager Carlo Ancelotti dubbed him an ‘untouchable‘ presence in Real Madrid’s team, while he features among the top 20% of midfielders in Europe for a wide range of key performance metrics over the past 12 months (FBref).

We’d certainly welcome any possibility of the 24-year-old weaving his magic at Anfield, but in reality this transfer rumours seems most unlikely to amount to anything tangible, particularly given Perez’s reported demands for the player.

Exclusive: Jacque Talbot’s Liverpool transfers update: Liverpool & Newcastle in for Kone, Thuram latest, likelihood of Lavia move… and more!

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Real Madrid president Florentino Perez is reportedly ready to accept the terms set out by Bobby Firmino in order to sign the forward on a free transfer after he departs Liverpool.

The 31-year-old has bid farewell to Anfield upon the expiry of his contract after eight years on Merseyside, and the 14-time champions of Europe appear to be very keen to get him to the Bernabeu.

Defensa Central have reported that the Brazilian has asked for a three-year deal with the LaLiga giants and an annual pay packet of €5m (£4.3m), with the 76-year-old willing to abide by those demands.

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Judging by figures from Capology, Firmino is willing to take a substantial pay cut with his next move, as he had been on a reported £9.36m per annum at Liverpool.

Even if he’s now coming into the latter part of his career, for him to apparently welcome such a large wage decrease may suggest that he firmly felt ready to move on from Anfield, where he had been playing since 2015.

That a club of Real Madrid’s stature and sky-high standards are prepared to straight away accept what he’s asking would indicate that the 31-year-old still has plenty to offer at the highest level of club football.

With that in mind, it’s a shame that Firmino is departing Liverpool, although he’d confirmed as far back as March that he’d be moving on this summer, so it’s not as if he’s sprung an almighty shock on Reds supporters.

Also, following 111 goals in 362 games for us (Transfermarkt), he’d more than earned the right to go out on his own terms, winning the hearts of staff, supporters and teammates alike during eight magnificent years on Merseyside.

Assuming his potential move to the Bernabeu goes through, Real Madrid will be lucky to have such a tremendous footballer, and their readiness to get him in the door suggests that they realise it.

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Real Madrid may have the reputation as one of the greatest and most well respected footballing institutions in the world but it’s safe to say that Florentino Perez isn’t held to quite the same level of prestige.

As reported by Football Talk (via Mundo Deportivo), the current president of the Spanish giants has become embroiled in a scandal: ‘Former referee Eduardo Iturralde Gonzalez made scandalous revelations on the Spanish radio show Cadena SER.

‘The Basque said that Florentino Perez tried to lock him in a room and put pressure on him in order to ask him to whistle Real Madrid in the same manner as Barcelona’.

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The 76-year-old is viewed by many as the greedy mastermind behind the European Super League plans and if these accusations are true, it shows that he’s happy to use more than his money and influence to try and make changes in the game.

If this incident proven to have actually happened, it could have some serious ramifications for both Los Blancos and the former politician as it could be viewed as them either forcefully or subconsciously causing a bias amongst referees in their favour.

It’s likely that this will not be shown to be true though as you would expect that the Spanish businessman would be intelligent enough to have not enabled any evidence to have been left behind on this alleged altercation.

There are so many wonderful parts of our sport that everyone loves, many including some brilliant players and teams from the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium but their president is almost the perfect personification of everything that is wrong with the beautiful game.

You can view the Real Madrid controversy via @FootballTalkHQ on Twitter:

Former referee Eduardo Iturralde Gonzalez made scandalous revelations on the Spanish radio show Cadena SER.

The Basque said that Florentino Perez tried to lock him in a room and put pressure on him in order to ask him to whistle Real Madrid in the same manner as Barcelona.… https://t.co/lqVXiJtTey pic.twitter.com/ZtMwHVBVRb

— Football Talk (@FootballTalkHQ) March 14, 2023

#Ep73 of The Empire of the Kop Podcast: Author chat with Chris Roberts on Football, Mental Health… and more!

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Liverpool owner JW Henry was the man executives of the Dirty Dozen wanted to front the European Super League project.

The American FSG honcho refused, which meant Real Madrid president Florentino Perez was its frontman – with disastrous  consequences.

As Perez gave his incredible, brash interviews with Spanish television on Monday night, the New York Times explains the reaction amongst the founding members.

“In the headquarters of the other Super League clubs, executives held their heads in their hands. Still, though, they remained mute, unwilling to go public to defend a plan that Pérez claimed had been designed expressly to “save football,” Rory Smith wrote. 

The report also explains how there were initial concerns Perez wouldn’t be able to convince an English audience, and interestingly, that the PR was focussed on governments and legislators rather than the popular support – which proved 100% accurate.

What baffles us most in their appalling planning was that none of the men behind it properly came out and explained why. We got a bit of Perez waffle, but little else. We were simply told what was happening, not why, not how.

It was a shocking indictment of the savviness of billionaires, who you perhaps wrongly assume must know what they’re doing.

Who knows, if they’d marketed it better and shown their own fans some respect, they might have got away with it!

The post ESL Founders wanted JW Henry as president over Florentino Perez, to convince English audience, but he refused appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.

Real Madrid honcho Florentino Perez is a little bit, ‘old man shouting at clouds,’ right now.

He’s not giving up on his European Super League dream and is refusing to back down – giving repeated interviews and coming out with increasingly bizarre statements.

In a big talk last night with Spanish TV, he claimed nobody has officially left the ESL because they haven’t paid the penalty fees in order to do so…

He also randomly delivered a jibe on Jurgen Klopp’s complaints about playing our Champions League quarterfinal with Real Madrid at their training ground, as you can see in the tweet below:

| Florentino Perez: "Klopp angry about Valdebebas? Valdebebas and Kiev had the same result. 3-1." #rmalive

— Madrid Zone (@theMadridZone) April 21, 2021

We’re not sure you really need to be picking any battles right now, Florentino!

In fairness, Klopp won’t take the bait – why would he? He’s a man of character and not somebody who’s tried his best to ruin football and create a closed-shop for the next 23 seasons.

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Florentino Perez and Fabinho spoke to each other post-game following Liverpool’s 3-1 defeat to Real Madrid on Tuesday night.

But we can’t and won’t have any accusations of tapping up – because the president was simply recalling when Fabinho was a Real Madrid player himself – which we’d totally forgotten about!

But the Brazilian played at right-back for Jose Mourinho in 2013, making one sole La Liga appearance before he transferred to AS Monaco and developed into a holding midfielder.

“With us you played as a right-back,” Florentino told the world’s best anchorman, according to MARCA…

“Yes, but to play right-back now… What a player you have in Vinicius!” Fabinho responded. 

Fabinho has been exceptional for us, but he didn’t play well at Real Madrid’s training ground.

In fact, the last time we started a midfield trio of Fabinho, Naby Keita and Gini Wijnaldum, we lost 7-2 to Aston Villa – thanks to countless long balls over the top of our high defence.

And the exact same thing happened against Real Madrid. We think Thiago should be an automatic starter, and with captain Jordan Henderson out, we’re not averse to the leadership of James Milner in the XI instead.

The post Transcript of Florentino Perez and Fabinho’s post-game chat released appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.

Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has lauded Liverpool’s supporters, claiming he’d love his own club to be backed in a similar manner.

The Spaniard was explaining how Anfield reacted in 2014 during our Champions League defeat to his side.

“People were applauding in Anfield when we beat them 0-3. I envy that kind of atmosphere and that which we have the best. There are journalists who only go to Madrid in the satisfaction of seeing us lose,” he said during a lengthy interview, cited on Twitter by journalist Ultra Suristic.

Our support has been nothing short of exceptional this season – most notably in the semi-final victory over Real Madrid’s rivals Barcelona.

We battered Barca 4-0, and the atmosphere in the ground was like nothing we’ve ever seen before.

Now, we have to channel that feeling and help the boys get over the line in Madrid v Spurs.

It’ll be hard considering the number of fans actually allowed in the Bernabeu, but we can guarantee there’ll be reds scattered all over the place – as there is in every final we compete in.

As Steven Gerrard once said, if Liverpool were playing on the other side of the moon, the fans would find a way of getting there!

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Florentino Pérez has opened the door for Liverpool to sign Alisson this summer – for his enormous asking-price, that is.

The Real Madrid president has evidently shed light on his club’s reluctance to meet the £80million valuation that has deterred Liverpool from pursuing their interest in the Roma goalkeeper.

Recent reports have claimed personal terms have been agreed between Real and Alisson, with the Champions League winners expected to table an opening bid of £44million.

Perez has laughed off suggestions the club will be paying Roma’s desired fee and subsequently welcomed Liverpool to buy the 25-year-old.

He has been quoted by @MadridSportsEs as telling Spanish reporters: “There will be a few (transfers) but little and special. They talk today about Alisson but for 78million euros Liverpool can buy him (laughs).”

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The proven value of spending £75million on Virgil van Dijk to address a priority position plunges Liverpool’s search for a goalkeeper into similar territory.

An inflated marked showing few signs of easing off promises to demand once-unimaginable fees, especially in cases such as Liverpool in terms of filling a gap many believe could be key to mounting a serious title charge.

Though the chances of landing Alisson are looking increasingly slim, the early signs hint there could be an unusual abundance of goalkeeping options on the market this summer.

With spending power unlikely to be an issue, the decision to look beyond Alisson is one Jurgen Klopp’s track record of transfers suggests should be perceived with optimism.

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