Liverpool to Shatter Transfer Record to Sign Thomas Lemar

Liverpool fans have been waiting. They’ve been hoping. Some have been doubting. Doubting that Liverpool would sign a midfielder despite the fact they so clearly, desperately need one. Fearing that having failed to sign RB Leipzig’s Naby Keïta, the club would head into the season without reinforcing the position.

It now looks like the doubts and fears may have been misplaced, with increasingly solid reports over the last 24 hours linking the club with a move for AS Monaco’s rising star 20-year-old Thomas Lemar. When they first did emerge, it was easy to dismiss them as no more than rumour mongering, but not any more.

According to L’Equipe, Liverpool have submitted an offer of €72M (£66.5M) up front plus a potential €8M (£7M) in add-ons, with the club willing to shatter their transfer record for the player and hopeful that a deal can be completed within the day. It is a serious and fair opening bid, meant to seal a deal quickly.

Arsenal had previously attempted to sign Lemar but had not been willing to go above €50M for the player, stopping him getting a move to the Premier League that he has wanted and opening the window for Liverpool to make a late move for the player that the club believe they have a good chance of succeeding at.

The bid has since been confirmed by journalists with ties to Liverpool, with both Goal’s Melissa Reddy and The Liverpool Echo’s James Pearce saying a bid has been made—though according to Pearce, the opening bid was closer to £60M than £70M. According to Reddy, the player is eager to move to Liverpool.

Both continue to insist that the move for Lemar, and any others the club might make in the coming days for that matter, are not connected to Barcelona’s continuing interest in Philippe Coutinho and that the club will not sell the Brazilian under any circumstances before the transfer window closes in three days.

At Monaco, Lemar spent most of last season on the wing but the year before played as a more central attacking midfielder. At Liverpool, he would be likely to find time as both the most advanced player in Klopp’s midfield trio as well as giving the manager another option on the wing.