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Feghouli on a free!?? That should, to varying degrees of exclamatory disbelief, be any sane football fan's reaction to hearing that Valencia's Algerian international wide forward, Sofiane Feghouli, is available to negotiate a pre-contract agreement with any club that piques his fancy.
This little tidbit of cold, hard, transfer rumor mongering comes at the world via a combination of Spanish daily's, but the Daily Star is being credited with being the first British publication connecting Liverpool's squad need to one of La Liga's best wide attackers.
Several things make this rumor particularly tasty from a Liverpool perspective. For one, Feghouli is absurdly talented. Two feet, lightning pace, vision, and cold blooded in tight spaces, the 26 year old Algerian international is as comfortable establishing width as he is supporting strikers from more central areas.
He's not a player who returns an absurd amount of goals--look for him to hover around the 10-15 combined goals and assists mark--but like a rich man's Adam Lallana, he does a little bit of everything at a very high level. The skills that are particularly enticing here are Feghouli's awareness and ability to stretch things with his off ball movement. It's the brains and touch of a guy like Lallana, but married to light-stepping fleetness that has served players like Mahrez and Payet so well in their first seasons in England.
The fact he is coming available on a free transfer is apparently down to the player's desire to be paid more handsomely, though undoubtedly the quirky season Valencia have had has played its part in Feghouli's vacillation over signing a new deal. Needless to say, with Liverpool's clear need at winger/wide attacker, one would forgive Jürgen Klopp for kicking the tires here.
Lazar Markovic, Jordon Ibe, Sheyi Ojo, Ryan Kent, Harry Wilson, and Bobby Adekanye are a great collection of young wingers/wide attackers to be getting on with, to be sure. Adding an experienced international, who would be expected to have the best football of his career over the next three or four seasons, is exactly the profile of player that would make that position group whole for Herr Kloppo.
Liverpool have already worked a trick in finding a mid-career international on a free transfer to complete a position group in Joel Matip. To repeat that trick with Feghouli would be an absolute masterclass of transfer dealing, and it could all happen before the Summer window has even opened.