Rumour Mongering: Reds Plot £20M Moussa Dembélé January Bid

Liverpool have been linked with Moussa Dembélé before, when the 20-year-old French striker was playing for Fulham. In the end, though, the player chose to head north to Scotland over the summer in search of a clearer route to regular first team football and a chance to continue his development.

The results so far have been outstanding. In the league, he has seven goals in 12 appearances. In the Champions League, he has five goals in 12. Add in a further five goals in the Scottish cup and he’s up to 17 goals in 27 total appearances at a rate of a goal every 115 minutes he’s on the pitch.

It’s a stellar return by any measure for a 20-year-old, and though it’s padded somewhat by the domestic cup goals against mostly weaker opposition, his impact in Europe makes it clear he’s not just padding stats against overmatched opposition. And that has Liverpool back in the picture for him.

At least according to Glasgow Live, who claim that their sources at Celtic tell them a deal totalling £20M is in the offing for Dembélé—with £10M of it guaranteed up front for the Scottish club and a key first team role for the player at Liverpool guaranteed by Jürgen Klopp should he agree to the move.

It would be a steep price to pay for a player who made the move north on a free transfer in the summer. Even taking arbitrated compensation into account, given Dembélé only spent two seasons at Fulham, Liverpool likely wouldn’t have paid more than a few million for last summer.

Still, as in the case of links to the likes of Julian Brandt and Quincy Promes in recent weeks, it does seem clear that Liverpool are looking for a pacy young attacker with some positional flexibility to bring in as soon as the January transfer window opens. And they certainly have the money to do so.

Dembélé’s price might be steep, especially given what he would have cost in the summer, but he’s a young and highly talented attacker who can play as an outright striker and on the wing. As more of a striker than winger, though, his arrival would make things more difficult for Daniel Sturridge.