Leandro Paredes has been one of the stars of the Italian rumour mill over the past 24 hours or so. AS Roma have signed Clement Grenier on loan from Lyon, and with the club wanting more spending, Paredes has been the man picked out as a possible sale.
We covered claims from Gazzetta dello Sport on Saturday which linked Liverpool, and there have been several other links in Italy since. The asking price has been put at €25m, which works out to be around £21m, which means that a claim from the English media doesn’t add up.
The Sun have come out with yet another transfer window ‘exclusive’ saying: ‘Liverpool are desperate to sign Roma midfielder Leandro Paredes for £26.5million as Jurgen Klopp looks to end torrid form.’
That works out to be €31m and therefore more than enough to please Roma.
However, it’s been reported by Emanuele Giulianelli, who is one of the most notorious rumour merchants out there.
Here’s just an example or why there should be doubt on Liverpool being ‘desperate’ to sign the player for £26.5m.
‘He’s the same guy who said Karim Benzema was set to arrive to sign for Arsenal on an August Sunday in 2015.
At the time of the Benzema claims it was easy to discredit, because Giulianelli had previously said Kostas Manolas had completed an Arsenal medical, Eduardo Vargas was joining Arsenal, and he’d also said Arsenal had opened talks to sign Edin Dzeko.
Not to forget him claiming Arsenal had agreed to pay Mario Balotelli €10m per season and that Demba Ba was an Arsenal player.
More recently, in March, the journalist said Manchester United were preparing a bid for Gonzalo Higuain that was higher than his buyout clause, and that Jose Mourinho had met Higuain’s brother and agreed terms on a £150k per week contract for the then Napoli striker.’
None of this is Paredes’ fault, who may be a Klopp consideration, it had been reported in Italy before Giulianelli got his hands on it. However, it’s simply too hard to believe Liverpool would be keen to pay over the odds, especially considering the source.
