Sao Paulo are no longer under pressure to sell Liverpool linked Igor Gomes with Barcelona inadvertently impacting the future of the so-called ‘new Kaka’, according to ESPN.
With his loping stride and that mop of floppy brown locks, Gomes not only plays like a 2007 Ballon D’Or winner – he looks a bit like him too.
While Jurgen Klopp has suggested that big-money signings will be few and far between at Anfield during a period of unprecedented financial uncertainty, reports from Globo Esporte in June suggested that the Premier League winners could make an exception when it comes to a £20 million Brazilian.
If there is one weakness in Liverpool’s game, it is perhaps a lack of cutting edge in central midfield with Klopp’s swashbuckling full-backs under pressure to carry the creative burden.
And the slaloming Gomes, with his ability to make a football pitch look like an ice rink, could have offered some guile amongst the grit at the heart of a sweltering engine room.
But, according to reports in South America, Sao Paulo have performed a sudden U-turn on Gomes’s future – and it doesn’t bode well for Liverpool.
Brazil have been hit harder than most by the ongoing global health crisis.
With even the country’s biggest clubs haemorrhaging funds at an alarming rate, Sao Paolo were under pressure to sell one of their prized assets to keep them afloat.
As ESPN point out, the Tricolor now have a healthy £4 million in the bank after Barcelona finally completed their protracted deal for Gustavo Maia – a teenage winger who has also been linked with Liverpool in recent weeks.
As a result, Sao Paolo no longer need to sell Gomes this summer.
Timo Werner? Nope. Kai Havertz? Unlikely. Now, it seems we can scratch another exciting prospect off Liverpool’s summer wishlist.
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