With reports coming out that Liverpool will not be triggering the clause in Ozan Kabak’s loan to make the deal permanent, the merry go round of defender targets is likely to continue.
The severe injuries sustained by both Virgil Van Dijk and Joe Gomez this season have made it clear the Reds need more quality in depth at the centre-back role, which is why half of Europe has been sent to Anfield in newspaper column inches.
One of those was Inter’s Alessandro Bastoni, who was linked back in March by Gazzetta dello Sport.
It was said that Liverpool were among those to ‘show some interest in him’ and ‘would have no problem shelling out (at least) €50m’ to get the deal done.
Well, Leggo in Italy somewhat back that up on Tuesday, claiming the Reds have ‘set their sights’ on the left-footed centre-back.
While he is one of the players Antonio Conte would like to keep, it’s made clear Suning, who own Inter, will be ‘forced to sell at least one valuable piece for budgetary reasons’.
Bastoni, Romelu Lukaku, Nicolo Barella and Lautaro Martinez are on the list of players the Italian manager doesn’t want sold, but if the owners decide the defender should go, they would be looking at a fee of around €50-60m, according to Leggo.
Whether Liverpool are prepared to spend that one a new centre-back remains to be seen, but if they decide to go all out, the 22-year-old appears to be on their list.
