Rumour Mongering: Liverpool Join Rodrigo De Paul Battle

While news concerning Liverpool midfielder Gini Wijnaldum has rather gone quiet in recent weeks, that the Reds will likely need to replace the out of contract Dutch international in the summer remains unchanged.

To that end, the rumour chatter out of Italy today claims they may have identified his replacement: Udinese’s 26-year-old captain Rodrigo De Paul. In fact, local Mondo Udinese go so far as to say Jürgen Klopp “dotes on the playmaker.”

However, it won’t be a simple capture for the Reds, with Udinese said to be holding out for €40M and Paris Saint-Germain and Leeds United said to also be interested in signing De Paul along with Serie A rivals Juventus.

Or at least that’s the story being sold by the Italian press, who do rather have a history of speculatively linking players to the Reds—often it seems on information from potential selling clubs looking to use them to drive up bidding.

As such, it might be more likely Udinese are simply signalling a willingness to sell and trying to encourage some other legitimately interested party to move quickly for the player to beat out imaginary Liverpool interest.

Still, for those keeping tabs on who Liverpool could move for in the summer if Wijnaldum does indeed depart as expected, it can sometimes be worth taking note when a local outlet is the one making a claim about a player.