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Following the departure of Luis Suarez, many Liverpool fans would rather like to see a splashy big-name signing arrive in his place. Enter PSG winger and dude pretty much everybody who watches football knows exists, Ezequiel Lavezzi, a winger who ticks all of the boxes. At least if the boxes you're trying to tick are dude pretty much everybody who watches football knows exists and speedy attacker.
Lavezzi spent his best years out wide for Napoli, scoring 38 times in 156 Serie A matches and linking up well with Edinson Cavani. Since moving to PSG in 2012, though, his production has dropped to 12 goals in 60 league games. Now, a mixed bag of Spanish press reports working through various permutations that might end with Angel Di Maria heading to PSG and the more speculative English tabloids are linking him to Liverpool.
The 29-year-old would seem an odd fit, though, given Lavezzi is deep into his prime and a player who relies almost exclusively on his physical talents to excel. Lavezzi has an awful lot going for him as an attacker, but he's never been the most tactically considered player. Put another way, he's made a career of being perhaps the most physically gifted winger in Europe but has shown less vision and positional flexibility than 19-year-old Raheem Sterling.
Combined with a change in leagues, it would be a gamble—a gamble that either Lavezzi has at least four more years at his physical peak or that he could successfully develop into an entirely different sort of player in England, one he has never shown signs of being, as he ages. Throw in high wages and it becomes clear why so far it's just been the Spanish press and bottom-feeding tabloids who are pushing the Lavezzi to Liverpool story.
He's a big name, and as a big name many will be drawn to rumours linking him to Liverpool for that reason alone. Plus a rumoured £18M transfer fee doesn't seem all that excessive. His wages, though, would be high. And given his age and style, he would be a massive gamble—with little resale value if he didn't pan out.
