Rumour Mongering: Reds in for Spanish Starlet

The understandable joke over the last few seasons is that Liverpool shouldn’t be buying the current Southampton player, but whoever they had in mind for that player’s eventual replacement.

Well, it looks like Liverpool might finally be getting out ahead of the curve, at least if the rumor mongers are correct (so probably not). The player in question is 19-year-old Espanyol central midfielder Marc Roca.

Roca came up through the Espanyol academy, joining in 2007 and finally making his senior debut this season. The young Spaniard has now racked up 7 appearances for the club, with 1 assist to his name.

According to Spanish newspaper Marca both Liverpool and Southampton are monitoring his contract negotiations, hoping to have the opportunity to swoop in and trigger his current low buy-out clause of £1.3 million. His current contract runs until this summer, and Espanyol are trying to both extend the contract and increase the buy-out clause.

This might be just a tactic to move along the negotiations by the Roca’s agent. Or it might be wild speculation by the media. Or, I guess, there might be something there.

Given that Roca has finally broken through at his boyhood club, he might not be so inclined to make a move to England, although that did not stop Alberto Moreno from doing the same a few years back.