Liverpool Will Go for Alex Teixeira Again in the Summer

Despite hopes heading into the day that there might be late some movement from Shakhtar Donestk when it came to their asking price for Alex Teixeira, it now appears Liverpool have entirely given up on any hopes of landing the 26-year-old Brazilian attacker before the close of the window.

Liverpool had made one offer of £24.5M plus £3M in potential add-ons for the leading scorer in the Ukrainian league and had shown signs of being willing to raise their base offer closer to £30M, but Shakhtar continued to insist it would take an offer of at least £38M to secure the services of Teixeira this month.

In recent days, both sides had abandoned face-to-face negotiations and begun dealing largely through the press, Liverpool signalling their intent to walk away if Shakhtar wouldn’t come down in their asking price while Shakhtar pointed at the player’s buyout €70M (£53M) clause and shrugged in response.

With no sign of change early on deadline day, Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp admitted to the press that he didn’t expect any major deals to get done before the close of the window. According to Sky Sports, though, giving up on Teixeira in the present doesn’t rule him out as a future possibility for the English club.

Given Teixeira is cup tied for the Europa League, the main advantage to getting him in this month would have been giving him a chance to spent half a season acclimatising to the English game in the hopes he could hit the ground running next season. And that hardly seemed worth the premium Shakhtar were demanding.

If the Ukrainian club are more willing to deal—which could depend largely on if any other suitors come forward between now and the end of the season—and Liverpool can get Teixeira for around £30M in a few months, it’s easy to see why the club might be inclined to wait on the player.