Rumour Mongering: Reds Battle Manchester United for Uruguayan Star

One way to tell it’s an international break, aside from the lack of club football that is, is that sudden uptick in poorly sourced and highly speculative transfer rumours as papers around Europe look to fill the football void with, well, football. Or football rumours at least.

That has led to a number of new players being linked to Liverpool, including the likes of Riyad Mahrez and Michael Keane over just the last 24 hours. Leandro Paredes, Timo Werner, Theo Hernandez. It’s a veritable rumour glut, and most of the names will never be head again when the break ends.

Reds fans can now add Atletico Madrid’s talented young centre half Jose Gimenez to the list, with the budding superstar defender having been linked to England generally and to Manchester United and Liverpool specifically by Spain’s AS. It’s an exciting rumour, if true. But it probably isn’t.

Gimenez is 22 years of age and for many teams, including many top teams, would already be a nailed-on starter. The Uruguayan is one of the top young defensive talents in the game and is regularly counted alongside the likes of Jonathan Tah and Niklas Süle in that regard.

Signing him away from Atletico, where he is currently third choice, and bringing him to Merseyside to slot in alongside Joël Matip would be something of a coup for the Reds if they could pull it off. If the rumours of their interest are true. Which they probably aren’t.

Because it’s the international break and that means the rumour mongers are desperate and linking any and every player they can think of with a big move. Still, Gimenez is the kind of player Liverpool should be targeting, and it’s certainly better to be linked with exciting players than the alternative.