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Liverpool were always going to sign a goalkeeper this summer, the only real question was whether it would be a replacement for Simon Mignolet meant only to back up Loris Karius next year or if it would be a new number one who arrived in the offseason.
The Champions League final, to all appearances, swung things rather hard towards the latter option. Despite speculation about some big name signings, though, players like Jan Oblak and Gianluigi Donnarumma, there seems only one top target.
That target is Roma’s Alisson. Roma, though, aren’t eager to sell—especially to Liverpool after last summer, when they had to let Mohamed Salah go on the cheap—and sporting director Monchi has been playing down the possibility of an Alisson move.
“In order for a player to leave, there have to be three elements in place,” he told the Italian press. “An offer, a yes from the club, and a yes from the player. As of today, we have nothing of the sort. We are happy to keep him. Rumours are normal at this stage.”
There has been a suggestion amongst journalists with ties to the club that, as with Virgil van Dijk at centre half, manager Jürgen Klopp this as a case of Alisson or nothing, with the Roma man the only attainable goalkeeper worth the effort of a transfer chase.
It will take upwards of £60M, a world record fee for a goalkeeper to match the world record fee for a defender spent on Van Dijk, to even have a chance of signing him. In January, the decision in the end was to pass—to at least give Karius six months.
Monchi may be playing down the possibility of a transfer, saying there’s no deal on the verge of being done, but all signs now point to Liverpool being willing to at least try to do what it takes to get in Klopp’s top goalkeeping target.
It won’t be easy, and if the club do land Alisson it will be for a very, very large transfer fee. If the club and Klopp believe he’s worth it, as they did with Van Dijk, then given their transfer track record one would have to believe that he is.