Rumour Mongering: Liverpool Interested in Domenico Berardi

When a player from a smaller club has a good summer tournament, you expect him to be linked with a move. Such is the case with Sassuolo winger Domenico Berardi, with the soon to be 27-year-old Italian starring at the Euros and now linked to a slew of clubs.

No fewer than four sides are considering a move for Berardi according to La Gazzetta dello Sport, with Liverpool joining AC Milan, Lazio, and Leicester City while current club Sassuolo slap a €40M price tag on the winger who scored against Turkey and Switzerland.

It isn’t a case of a player simply getting notice for his Euros performance, mind, as Berardi—who has three years to run on his current deal—scored 17 goals and added eight assists in 30 Serie A games last season, contributing a goal or assist every 99 minutes.

That’s a return that puts the player in elite company, with Berardi’s production taking a major step up last season as he recorded a career high for goals, expected goals, and expected goal contributions per 90 for the side that finished eighth in Italy.

All of which makes it easy to understand why he’s getting some transfer chatter. Still, that the Liverpool links didn’t first emerge until the Euros kicked off is cause for skepticism. As is the player’s age, which isn’t far off that of the cub’s established front three.

If the Reds needed a forward in his prime and believed Berardi’s 2020-21 return was something he could sustain it’s a link that would make sense. As it is, it’s hard to look at the current Liverpool squad and see where Berardi fits at this point in his career.