Liverpool Reportedly Favourites to Beat Chelsea and Arsenal to Thomas Lemar

Liverpool and Arsenal made moves for Monaco’s rising star attacker Thomas Lemar as the summer transfer window neared its end but came up short, simply lacking the time to get such a major deal over the line at that late stage. Both clubs, though, have since retained interest and have been joined on that front by Chelsea.

Now, according to The Independent, Liverpool will make an offer for the 22-year-old French international—and that word coming out of Anfield is that Lemar favours Liverpool over the two other big English clubs looking to sign him. The paper also claims a deal isn’t connected to the Philippe Coutinho situation.

Coutinho may leave the club eventually—most likely following the end of the season—but the current interest in Lemar is about Jürgen Klopp’s desire to add more options, and more speed, to his attack. At least according to the report. In reality, Coutinho’s likely departure will play a key role in any move for Lemar.

Even if the club fully intend to hold on to Coutinho through to the end of the current season, if Lemar is Klopp’s first-choice to replace the Brazilian over the longer term, getting him in now would make sense—it might even, with Arsenal and Chelsea interested in signing him, be the only way for Liverpool to get him.

And it’s not just The Independent saying Liverpool want to bring him in in January, or that Lemar favours the Reds over the Gunners or London’s Blues, with multiple reports—of wildly varying levels of reliability—over the past 24 hours claiming Lemar wants Liverpool and a January deal looks increasingly likely.

Lemar’s performance this season at Monaco has dipped somewhat, which always seemed likely after the club sold off so many of its other top players over the summer, but he remains an exceptional talent and has looked the same player Liverpool bid on last summer in his appearances for the French national team.