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Heading into the January transfer window, knowing they’d be losing Sadio Mané to the Africa Cup of Nations and with Philippe Coutinho having picked up an injury, Liverpool pushed hard to win the signature of Julian Draxler, who at the time played for Wolfsburg.
They lost the race for him to Paris Saint-Germain, as the German attacker chose the Ligue 1 side with its promise of Champions League football over Merseyside. Despite having just spent €40M to sign him, and despite that he scored 10 goals and three assists for them in 25 games, they now no longer want him.
Or at the very least they’ve decided that with the arrival of Neymar and with the club planning further big money signings, Draxler is expendable. If he is available, and if Liverpool really cannot sign Naby Keïta or Virgil van Dijk this summer, a move would at least seem plausible.
Already the tabloids are putting two and two together, and already the bookies have installed Liverpool as favourites to beat Arsenal—who had been linked to him earlier in the summer—to his signature. Draxler has also reportedly been offered to Barcelona.
Where he might actually end up isn’t especially clear right now, but over the past week there have been reports out of France claiming both that Draxler is unhappy at the club and that manager Unai Emery has told him that he will not get regular minutes this season.
At the very least, Draxler is for sale. And it would make sense if Liverpool, frustrated in their attempts to sign their top targets and sitting on a significant portion of their transfer budget, returned for a player who only six months ago was a top target.