Just days after reports emerged suggesting that Liverpool are keeping tabs on one of Europe’s rising midfield talents, the teenager’s technical director confirms that the Premier League giants have indeed made a few visits.
Now, Ola Larsson would not confirm or deny if the 18-year-old midfielder was the reason for Liverpool’s trip.
But the phrase ‘no smoke without fire’ comes to mind, the Premier League giants sending their scouts to watch the club where the much-admired, £8.5 million-rated wonderkid plies his trade.
“Liverpool have been on site and scouted. Oh my god, yes. It’s them all the time,” Larsson tells Expressen.
“I do not know (if they are watching Malick Yalcouye). They just put themselves on the scouting list, so I don’t know who they’re looking at. All those clubs are there all the time.”
Liverpool like Malick Yalcouye but face Brentford battle
Yalcouye, Caught Offside reported last week, are big fans of IFK Gothenberg starlet Yalcouye. As are Brentford, a club with a tradition of scouring less obvious markets in pursuit of young talent, alongside Ajax, Gent and Eredivisie champions PSV Eindhoven.
Yalcouye only turned 18 in November but is already a starter at IFK. The midfielder would be the second Swedish-based teenager to join a Premier League giant since the turn of the year, Tottenham Hotspur fighting off competition from Barcelona to snap up Lukas Bergvall from Djurgarden in the January transfer window.
For Larsson, outspoken and not afraid to raise a few eyebrows, there is no doubt that Yalcouye is ‘clearly better’ than the Spurs-bound playmaker, his IFK starlet already performing at ‘such a high level’ despite only recently making his senior debut.
Better than Lukas Bergvall?
“I always think he is our best player,” Larsson adds. “I think he is completely superior and I also think he always has another level in his body. If (he can go to) a top-five league, who knows?
“If we receive an offer that we cannot refuse, then we will sell. But instead of saying; ‘We need to keep him for another one-and-a-half years in order for us to perform’, I think; ‘Let’s be grateful that we have been with (him in) this period’.
“Then, of course, we hope that he can play with us as long as possible.”
While reluctant to confirm which club is leading the race at present, the IFK director insists that the interest is growing, things threatening to reach boiling point ahead of the summer window.
“There are a lot of requests and those requests are starting to become more or less concrete. It’s starting to bubble. We’ll see what will happen,” Larsson says, via Blavitt+. “But he is one of our absolute best players, so no one will be happier than me if we get to keep him.”
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