Rumour Mongering: Reds Back in for Bacca

Once a Liverpool transfer target, always a Liverpool transfer target. From Arda Turan to Pedro Rodriguez to Andriy Yarmolenko, Reds fans are used to seeing a prospective signing’s name pop up over and over again after he’s been linked for the first time, never matter how the situation may have changed.

And even moving to another club doesn’t stop the rumours resurfacing. Struggle to see eye to eye with the new coach, fall down the depth chart, end up at a club whose finances are in question. It all leads right back around to being linked with a Liverpool again, and today that means striker Carlos Bacca joins the club.

According to the Mail and Express, Bacca is up for sale a year after signing AC Milan because the Italian giants are looking to cut their wages after missing out on the Champions League. West Ham were the first English club linked to him, said to be willing to offer £16M, but Liverpool’s name has been added to the mix.

Milan, for their part, are rumoured to be demanding £20M, which seems a touch low given they paid £23M for him last summer and he scored 20 goals for them last season. Still, he’s 29 years old now, and Milan are said to mostly be interested in clearing his £60k per week wages—quite high for Serie A—off the books.

Obviously, for England, £60k per week wouldn’t be an issue whether it was West Ham or Liverpool looking to bring him in. Which is where it all gets a touch more convoluted, because Bacca after all is the striker Liverpool’s transfer committee wanted to move on to after Christian Benteke’s price went above £25M.

Meanwhile, Milan have been rumoured to have some interest in Benteke. Which would assuredly have some thinking player swap, even if player swaps aren’t things that actually happen often outside of video games, except that if Milan want rid of Bacca because his wages are too high they certainly can’t afford Benteke.

Benteke is one of Liverpool’s highest paid players, his wages are an eye-watering £140k per week. Then there’s also the fact that Benteke has been linked with a West Ham move, something that wouldn’t be at all likely if they ended up with Bacca instead—and which seems far likelier than him ending up at Liverpool.

Because Liverpool being in for Bacca doesn’t seem at all likely. He’s older than the sort of player the club likes to target and, with the club set on a one-striker system, there isn’t a pressing need to bring in a big name striker signing even if Benteke is sold this summer—though with his wages, who remains a tough question..

Still, there’s some entertainment value in trying to sort through the convoluted mish-mash of Bacca and Benteke transfer rumours here with Liverpool rumoured to want one, Milan the other, West Ham both, and the two players having been so tied together when the Reds were chasing both just last summer.