Stoke City Show Interest In Sakho

It’s Mark Hughes lightning quick out of the gate in this year’s Mamadou Sakho Loan Prix. It’s unclear who will emerge alongside him or who perhaps might even surpass him in the race for Sakho’s skills this season, but there will certainly be more competition on the way.

It’s not clear how this type of information is disseminated out from clubs to journalists. Is it an email or is there a Deep Throat? Is it a text or rocks at the window? We don’t know. I think it’s magic but your mileage may vary. In this instance, the only anchor we have to tie this thing down to is the word of a trusted source. And James Pearce has always been a fairly reliable door into Liverpool Narnia.

What we know is that Stoke City have stated their interest in having Mamadou Sakho on the Potters team sheet this season. They are curious of the fee, curious of Sakho’s interest in moving to Stoke to play some games. What happens next is anybody’s guess.

The move makes sense for Mark Hughes and his side given that Manchester City put four goals passed the struggling Stoke City defense last weekend and Hughes is likely to be searching hither and yon for some defensive cover. Mamadou is an experienced Premier League center back who likes the ball at his feet and loves to spot a pass and would aptly suit Stoke City’s new style of actually playing football.

As for Liverpool, Klopp was happy to mostly skirt the issue when asked about Sakho’s siuation at the club.

“Everybody who needs to be informed about this has been informed about this,” said Klopp.

“There are no secrets with the important people, I would say.”

It remains to be seen if we’ll ever see Mamadou Sakho play in red again. If Klopp is done with the player then he’s done. And I can see that. But do I really have to see him in a partnership with Ryan Shawcross?