With reported £8.5m Liverpool target officially relegated, could it be another Shaqiri situation?

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Jurgen Klopp’s Premier League leaders brought Andy Robertson, Gini Wijnaldum and Shaqiri to Anfield from relegated clubs; now for Mathieu Goncalves?

You might be mistaken if you think a definitive line has been drawn under the Ligue 1 season.

There was not a single solution to an unprecedented problem which would have pleased each and every club in the French top flight. But it is fair to say that the LFP’s decision to bring the 2019/20 campaign to a premature conclusion, and relegate the bottom two teams in the process, has not gone down particularly well with many across the Channel.

There have already been murmurings of legal action from a number of teams, with Lyon’s outspoken president Jean-Michel Aulas unsurprisingly leading the revelation.

Things are still subject to change and, with the discontent rising, Lyon are not the only side left furious with the LFP’s decree.

“I want to forcefully make my position clear: any decision to relegate a team based on the provisional classification taken from the 27th or 28th matchday taken against Toulouse would be unjust, unfair and unfounded in law… An abuse of power,” Toulouse president Olivier Sadran said in a statement.

Now, Sadran’s tirade certainly loses some of it’s venom when you consider that Toulouse are bottom of Ligue 1, 17 points from safety with just three wins from 28 matches. If survival was not technically impossible, it was certainly very improbable.

But the facts, for now, are these: Toulouse are down. And, although it is not 100 per cent set in stone, it looks almost inevitable that left-back Mathieu Goncalves will be one of the first out the door.

Liverpool are interested in a £8.5 million Paris-born youngster who has been one of the few shining lights in a dismal season, according to L’Equipe.

Jurgen Klopp’s Reds have a history when it comes to raiding relegated clubs (see Gigi Wijnaldum, Xherdan Shaqiri and Andy Robertson) and Toulouse now appear powerless to prevent Goncalves from following in their footsteps.

The phrase ‘one man’s misery is another’s misfortune’ has never been more apt.