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It looks to be only a matter of hours before the sale of Raheem Sterling to Manchester City is completed, with the 20-year-old winger set to earn Liverpool a fee in the region of £44m to £50m after add-ons. That is a staggering sum of money for any player, and while the club are no doubt losing a player of both present impact and future promise, they've got an opportunity to potentially reinvest a large bit of that fee on a player that could either replace or quite possibly improve on the role Sterling would have played.
Over the course of the summer Liverpool have been linked with a move for Denis Cheryshev, the Real Madrid winger who spent last season on loan at Villareal. Back in early June Liverpool were reportedly interested in the Russian international at around £14m, which seemed steep for a player who had an average impact for Villareal and clearly wasn't going to break through at the Bernabeu. In recent weeks the rumored fee rose to £22m, which should have effectively ruled out any interest from Liverpool whatsoever.
Thankfully that appears to be exactly what happened, as the Liverpool Echo are reporting today that Liverpool will not look to bring Cheryshev to Merseyside. It's questionable whether or not they ever should have retained any interest, as the wide man appeared to offer little that wasn't in the squad already, and certainly didn't represent an improvement on Sterling or those who will remain in Red.
With any interest in Cheryshev apparently gone, it will be interesting to see where Liverpool set their sights. A striker is all but guaranteed, whether it's Christian Benteke or someone else, and there's promising links to players in the midfield and forward areas. So far Liverpool have done a very good job this summer on nearly all fronts, and their moves in the wake of Sterling's exit will go a long way in defining the sentiment that's carried into the start of the season.
