Liverpool are yet to make a move in this summer’s transfer market following the appointment of Arne Slot.
The Dutchman has been assessing his new squad during pre-season whilst his Anfield bosses have been working possible options that could be available to him.
The Merseyside giants are looking for a forward, a left-sided defender and also a defensive minded midfielder – but the message from the club has always been ‘quality rather quantity’.
And they now feel they have a chance to sign a midfielder of huge quality, but it would mean them succeeding where Premier League rivals Arsenal have already failed.
- READ MORE – Liverpool can succeed where Arsenal failed with £51m Martin Zubimendi deal, his hero is a Reds legend
Liverpool receive encouragement to pursue Martin Zubimendi
HITC had revealed that intermediaries had contacted Real Sociedad and Spain star Martin Zubimendi on behalf of Liverpool and now things have moved on.
Liverpool sources now confirm that they have indeed received encouragement over a possible deal and they are now ‘exploring a deal’ for the 25-year-old – who helped Spain lift the Euro 2024 title this summer.
Liverpool’s new sporting director Richard Hughes has very strong contacts in Spain including, the agent of Zubimendi, Inaki Ibanez, who he worked with to bring Bournemouth’s head coach Andoni Iraola to England last year, and it is clear he is now utilising that relationship to try and broker what would be a hugely significant deal.
Ibanez is also well known to Liverpool’s hierarchy having held talks with them about another of his clients Xabi Alonso. The former Liverpool man was the club’s top target to replace Jurgen Klopp before deciding to stay at Bayer Leverkusen.
Arsenal failed to persuade Zubimendi to move to England
Zubimendi is a player who has already been the subject of intense transfer speculation this summer having been Arsenal’s top target coming into the window with boss Mikel Arteta pushing hard for his signature.
Arsenal were more than happy to pay Zubimendi’s release clause which is just over £50million as they engaged in talks.
However, despite extensive work done by Arsenal, Zubimendi failed to be persuaded that a move to North London was right for him and The Gunners moved away from a deal.
Ironically, Arsenal have since switched their attentions to his Sociedad and Spain team-mate Mikel Merino and had been hoping to finalise a move for him this week.
Real Sociedad would be loathed to lose Zubimendi, but given the player has a release clause they can’t stop him leaving if he does want to to leave the club.
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