Rumour Mongering: That’s Doucoure

1Jürgen Klopp has brought in his fair share of marquee players at Liverpool. Mohamed Salah comes to mind. As does Virgil van Dijk, Alisson, and Naby Keita. These players and others like them were added to the team as certifiable. Goals, no goals, whatever their expertise, those players were performing at the top level and were expected to continue. Large price tags, big headlines.

But the scouting department is tasked with more than finding the near-finished product. They also seek out potential. They look for consistency in players at smaller clubs and track the progress of future targets. Liverpool’s scouts are undoubtably present at football matches throughout Europe during the course of any month in a season. They are gathering information in order to make decisions down the line.

But it’s often the case that the mere presence of, say, a Liverpool scout at a Watford match, creates a rumour buzz that implies machinations and an impending transfer. Such is the situation with Watford’s Abdoulaye Doucoure.

Doucoure has made a good go of his move to Watford from Rennes in 2016. He had an impression campaign last year with the Hornets and at twenty-five, the Frenchman should be just about rounding into his prime.

Reports out of France are claiming that Paris Saint-Germain are so interested in the midfielder that they’re expecting a Doucoure January arrival. And if that doesn’t happen then one of Arsenal or Liverpool are said to be ready to swoop in with a fancy pen to get that signature.

I don’t know enough about Watford or Doucoure to know if the player even resembles something that could fit into Klopp’s system. But not knowing about something has never stopped me from writing about it before. In retrospect, I probably should have opened with that.

Doucoure?