Liverpool have been linked, off and on since the summer transfer window closed, with Inter Milan midfielder Geoffrey Kondogbia. The 23-year-old arrived at Inter a year ago as a splashy £26M signing and impressed in his first year in Italy. Then, Frank de Boer took over.
The new manager has been highly critical of Kondogbia, and the French international has gone from starter to fringe player in a matter of months. It’s no surprise, really, to find him linked with a move away. It’s not even a surprise to find him being linked with Liverpool.
None of that is a stretch. Reports today in Italy, led by TransferMarketWeb, just might be, though. That’s because those new reports claim that, more than being just interested, Jürgen Klopp has gone to Liverpool’s owners and requested that they sanction a January move for Kondogbia.
With no confirmation yet from club-connected journalists on Liverpool’s end despite that there have been links in Italy for over a month now, escalating from supposed interest to a move for Kondogbia being imminent seems like quite the jump.
On paper at least, Kondogbia’s age, promise, and ability as a versatile midfielder make him intriguing. On paper at least, if he was available on the cheap he would be interesting to Liverpool based on their behaviour in the transfer market under Fenway Sports Group.
He is a reasonable transfer target. Yet transfer rumours in Italy remain the most difficult to parse and least likely to be true, and having been linked for a month now, there has been nothing beyond the rumours out of Italy to suggest Kondogbia could actually be heading to Anfield.
All told, then, it might be a little early to buy into the idea he’s a player at the top of Klopp’s January transfer list and a bid is being drawn up as we speak. If Klopp were interested, he probably would be available. But that’s about where this transfer rumour starts and ends for now.