Liverpool are just a week away from the start of their Premier League title defence and it’s been a subdued summer on the transfer front so far.
Kostas Tsimikas is the only player to join the Reds as of yet, despite plenty of speculation about Thiago Alcantara moving to Anfield, too.
For £11 million, signing Tsimikas was considered a pretty good piece of business, given that he’s only 24 and could get a whole lot better under a man-manager of Jurgen Klopp’s talents.
But based on information that came out on Saturday, it could be another very shrewd piece of business by Liverpool’s transfer guru, Michael Edwards.
Before Tsimikas, there was Norwich City left-back Jamal Lewis.
The relegated Canaries rejected a couple of bids from Liverpool for Lewis, including a £10 million offer because City, according to The Telegraph, wanted £20 million.
But Sky Sports News reported yesterday that they had accepted a £13.5 million bid from Newcastle for the 22-year-old.
Simply put, if Liverpool wanted – really wanted – Lewis then they could’ve easily signed him, simply by increasing their offer by a few million.
But considering they gave up so easily, it seems very plausible that the ‘interest’ was simply a smokescreen in getting Olympiakos to lower their price for Tsimikas.
It’s a lot more difficult for the Greek outfit to play hardball with Edwards for Tsimikas if they know – or at least think – that the English champions have another left-back lined up if they can’t bring the Greece international to Merseyside.
If Liverpool were genuinely keen on signing Lewis, they would have. With Norwich accepting much less than their £20 million valuation, it’s very likely that Tsimikas was Liverpool’s primary target all along – and Edwards got him for cheaper than he might have had the Reds not been linked to other defenders.
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