Could Liverpool’s Michael Edwards kill two birds with one stone?
Liverpool fans want Dejan Lovren sold this summer.
The Croatia international has been a good servant for the Reds over the past six years, but his performance in a 3-0 defeat at Watford – Liverpool’s first loss of the Premier League season – before the hiatus has ticked off a lot of supporters.
And if rumours are believed, Liverpool’s Director of Football Michael Edwards has a very clever way to not only offload Lovren, but sign a top-class replacement at the same time.
According to Gazzetta Dello Sport, the European champions want to sign Napoli centre-back Kalidou Koulibaly – and they’re favourites because they would offer up Lovren as a makeweight.
With the way the financial climate is in football right now, Liverpool won’t be able to afford Koulibaly’s £89 million price-tag.
But a Lovren-plus-cash deal is a really smart way to kill two birds with one stone.
It must be said that including the former Southampton star won’t knock that much off the Senegal international’s price-tag.
Even if Edwards can get £20 million for Lovren – which might be a big IF – then he’d still have to pay £69 million for Koulibaly, which is a hell of a lot more money now than it was in February.
But if Liverpool do offload Lovren in the deal that brings Koulibaly to Anfield then it has to be considered another brilliant piece of business from Edwards.
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