Portuguese Reports Claim Liverpool Midfielder Told He Will Be Sold

With Liverpool’s players joining up in Austria for the first week of pre-season and a few key stars still away on holiday after their Euro and Copa America commitments, we got the usual noises about how it’s another chance for some of the club’s fringe players to impress.

However, the message to some of those players behind the scenes might not be quite as optimistic, at least according to reports out of Portugal that claim at least one of those fringe players—25-year-old Serbian midfielder Marko Grujic—has been told he will be sold.

The one sticking point could be that Liverpool are holding out for £15M (€17M), and while Portugal’s A Bola think the player’s preference would be to return to FC Porto after spending last season there on loan, for the Reds the top priority is seeing their valuation met.

In addition to Porto’s interest—which has been speculated about regularly since the season ended, often casting the Primeira Liga side as favourites—in Germany Hertha Berlin have made little secret of the fact that they would like to bring Grujic back to the Bundesliga.

There have also been claims that Sassuolo see Grujic as the ideal replacement for the likely to depart Manuel Locatelli, whom Juventus have currently offered €30M while Arsenal have reportedly offered €40M—but with the player resistant to the idea of joining the Gunners.

While finances are clearly tight for many clubs across Europe, hopefully there’s enough real interest out there for Grujic for a deal to get done in relatively short order to give the player a full pre-season with his new club and Liverpool time to reinvest any transfer fee.