:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/45906488/152455062.0.jpg)
Rumour out of Portugal has it that Liverpool are keeping a close eye on Benfica winger Eduardo Salvio’s contract negotiations, with his current club looking to tie the 24-year-old down with a new deal while Salvio’s agents are insisting any new deal will have to come with a significantly reduced buyout clause. Currently, Salvio’s buyout is upwards of £40M. A new deal could see that halved.
Part of the rumour has Slvio’s agent insistent on a reduced buyout because of Liverpool interest, with Brendan Rodgers supposedly chasing his client, and that as much as anything the current negotiations are about setting the cost of the player’s departure. It sounds good, perhaps, but then if Benfica were willing to let Salvio go for a lesser fee—one Liverpool were willing to pay—there would be little need for a new deal with a reduced buyout.
Salvio’s current contract runs through 2017, meaning that while a new deal may be a priority, it isn’t an exceptionally urgent one. And if Salvio wants to leave this summer and Benfica are willing to sell him for closer to £20M than £40M, there’s no reason to negotiate a new deal simply to set the buyout clause to a level other clubs might be willing to pay. One has to assume, then, that these Liverpool rumours have little actually to do with Liverpool.
There is the appearance at least that Liverpool’s rumoured interest mostly has to do with Salvio’s agent wanting to get his client and himself a little more money—perhaps in exchange for accepting a buyout clause that would be high enough to scare the English club off were they actually interested in him. Which they probably aren’t. Because if they were and Benfica were willing to sell, there’d be no actual need for Salvio to sign a new contract.
