Premier League giants Liverpool would have to pay £50 million to tempt Aston Villa into selling John McGinn, with The Athletic reporting Jurgen Klopp is a big fan of the tireless Scot.
During the first week-and-a-half of the European Championships, Gini Wijnaldum has left a custard pie-shaped imprint on the face of the club that let him leave on a free transfer.
If Liverpool look a tad foolish right now, that may be because they were.
The long-serving Dutchman walked away from Liverpool in May – swapping Merseyside for Paris Saint-Germain – after the Reds refused to meet his contract demands.
Since then, Wijnaldum has performed like a man possessed, scoring three times in three games as the Netherlands won every one of their group games at Euro 2020.
Replacing a midfielder renowned not only for his finishing ability and special awareness but also his leadership skills, versatility, work rate and selflessness will be easier said than done, not to mention expensive.
Is McGinn the right man to replace Wijnaldum at Liverpool?
John ‘Meatball’ McGinn, Villa’s prize-fighting playmaker, would certainly tick a lot of boxes for Klopp.
In fact, The Athletic reports that in the aftermath of October’s 7-2 shellacking in front of the Holte End, Klopp expressed his admiration for McGinn’s seemingly boundless energy reserves while talking to fellow Scot Andy Robertson.
Many in the Liverpool squad were also intrigued by the exceptional performance of a man who, in 2018, slipped through Celtic’s net to join Aston Villa for a bargain £2.75 million.
Three years on, it would take closer to £50 million to convince the Midlands giants to part with a midfielder Klopp himself once described as a ‘super player’.
The Sunday Post (Post Match pullout, 20/06, p2) had suggested a deal could set Liverpool back £20 million.
But that appears to be wishful thinking on Liverpool’s part. Villa want double that and more for a man who signed a new five-year contract as recently as December.
McGinn isn’t the only potential Wijnaldum replacement on Liverpool’s wish-list but none of them – Yves Bissouma, Florian Neuhaus, Youri Tielemans, Fabio Vieira – would come cheap either.
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