Rumour Mongering: Liverpool to Swap Joël Matip for Kalidou Koulibaly

Liverpool are set to spend over €100M to bring in Kalidou Koulibaly in the summer while selling Joël Matip in order to recoup some of the costs, at least if you believe today’s big, blockbuster transfer story out of Italy.

If that’s your thing, well, contact has been made and negotiations have begun according to TuttoMercatoWeb, who claim that Jürgen Klopp has personally decided that he absolutely has to have Koulibaly in to partner Virgil van Dijk.

We’ll just say right up front that we have doubts. Doubts Liverpool would spend anything like €100M on any player this summer. Doubts Liverpool would spend €100M on a player set to turn 29 this summer in any summer.

We have further doubts because Koulibaly has been linked with multiple English clubs over the past year, most recently Tottenham, and when that starts to happen it’s hard not to think it’s an agent or prospective selling club at work.

We’re also inclined to raise an eyebrow at a transfer story that has the Reds selling Matip on to make way for Koulibaly while seemingly forgetting that Joe Gomez—set to turn 23 next month—exists and is good at football.

So. An Italian outlet known for highly speculative transfer stories. A player who’s been linked to every other big English club already. A player who’d cost €100M, who’s set to turn 29, at a time of extreme financial uncertainty.

We don’t expect any club to pay €100M for Koulibaly this summer, and we’re completely certain that Liverpool won’t. As such, we won’t be getting invested in this transfer rumour one way or the other any time soon.