Over the past few days, we’ve covered Liverpool’s sudden inclusion in the Sime Vrsaljko transfer standoff currently occurring between Napoli and Atlético Madrid.
Corriere dello Sport are the only ones reporting Jürgen Klopp’s alleged interest in the Croatian, which is a bit strange in itself considering that if there was anything serious, Il Mattino, a Naples based newspaper, would have picked up on it, but they haven’t.
We’ve happily gone along with it, just because we had nothing to suggest it wasn’t true, but a little tidbit of information in Wednesday’s edition of the Italian newspaper caught our attention, and explains a lot.
Corroborating a report in the aforementioned Il Mattino, Corriere state Vrsaljko has said ‘yes’ to a move back to Italy, where he previously played for Genoa and Sassuolo, but the price remains an issue.
Originally €20m, Atlético’s demands have now jumped up to €25m since ‘Liverpool’s and Monaco’s interest’, leading us to believe the names of the two clubs might have just been used by someone down the Spanish side’s end as an excuse to get a few million extra.
After all, Monaco are sitting on a nice pile of gold after their summer sales, while the Reds are a Premier League side, which automatically means they have lots of money in the eyes of foreign clubs.
Maybe we’re being a bit too cynical, but the fact no other Italian newspaper has mentioned Liverpool in their coverage of the story is certainly suspicious.
