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In recent weeks, rumours of Daniel Sturridge seeking a move away from Liverpool in January in search of the playing time that would ensure he still has a place on next summer’s World Cup squad for England have begun to grow. Now, we can add talk of Italian interest in signing him.
More specifically, Calciomercato claim that AC Milan maintain interest in the striker, who they claim the Serie A giants have tried to sign from Liverpool before. They further claim that if a Milan deal weren’t to materialise, there are other Italian clubs who would be interested in the striker.
Liverpool, though, aren’t eager to sell—by all reliable reports, Sturridge remains a valuable depth option for Jürgen Klopp, who does not believe it’s in the club’s interest to let him depart in January. Still, it’s not difficult to imagine Sturridge wanting to leave, perhaps even pushing for it.
And if he pushes hard enough, he might just get his move given Danny Ings has impressed with the reserves and the club have a recall option on Divock Origi, meaning there are potential depth options that could be sourced if the veteran Englishman were to depart in six weeks.
A bigger stumbling block even than Liverpool’s willingness to sell, though, might be that Milan’s financial situation is currently a mess—and not far off catastrophic—after their new Chinese owners bought the club by loading it with debt in a deal financed by an American hedge fund.
It’s a situation not entirely unlike the one Liverpool faced under Tom Hicks and George Gilett. In fact, it’s probably worse, and the current owners are currently scrambling to refinance their deal, which would see them owe their financiers €47M in interest by October of next year.
Fail to pay that, and the club would default. And unless their can refinance, that looks like a real possibility, which means free funds to pay for transfers may be hard to come by. Still, if their interest is real—and their financial situation changes—a move might not be impossible.