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So far, the strikers linked with a Liverpool move this summer as the season winds down have fallen into two distinct categories: underwhelming and impossible. It’s all been a jumble of relegation retreads and seemingly awkward fits on one side and players few fans are delusional enough to think can actually be tempted to join give the club’s lack of Champions League football on the other.
That may have changed today, though, with French paper le 10 Sport claiming PSG’s biggest obstacle to bringing in Lyon man Alexandre Lacazette this summer could come from Liverpool, who had their interest in the 23-year-old breakout star rebuffed last summer. Most Liverpool fans will be desperately hoping the interest is real—and that a second try for Lacazette goes better than the first.
After failing to bring him in last summer, Liverpool were forced to move on to other top targets. And then to targets few believed were their top ones. And then, in the end, the club rolled the dice on salvaging the raw talent that is Mario Balotelli. It’s a gamble that clearly hasn’t paid off, and they will have to do far better this summer if they’re to have a realistic chance of making it back into the top four.
The French paper believe that this time around, Liverpool are likely to make an opening offer of €28M for Lacazette, a fee that works out to just a hair over £20M and seems a downright bargain for a player who has scored 27 goals in 33 Ligue 1 games this year at the rate of a goal every 105 minutes. Fast, technically gifted, hard working, and a natural finisher. Lacazette seems the ideal striker target.
He’s also likely to end up costing somebody closer to £30M than to £20M, and there are rumours he is also being tracked by Manchester United and Tottenham in England. Plus, staying in France, there’s big-spending PSG to worry about. The French league may not have the money or prestige of the Premier League, but staying home for a Champions League side could well appeal to Lacazette.
Certainly, though, Lacazette is the type of striker Liverpool so desperately need: young but already proven, and also a good fit for the style of football the club want to play under Brendan Rodgers. And in a world where Aston Villa think that Christian Benteke is worth £32M, one could probably even call Lacazette a bargain.
