Liverpool need to pay over the odds this summer for Naby Keita or we face falling behind our Premier League rivals once more.
It is hard to criticize Liverpool in their pursuit of Naby Keita. He is Jurgen Klopp’s number one target this summer and, despite RB Leipzig’s firm refusal to sell, we have pushed as hard as we can. So far, no luck. If RB Leipzig maintain their stance then there is nothing the club can do. If there remains a possibility his price should not be prohibitive.
The club’s assessment of the player is that he is a generational talent. Able to dominate the Premier League from day one (August 12th against Watford). Yet young enough to be at the club for a decade. And if he performs how they think he will there will be the option to sell him for a profit in a few years. £100 million transfers will soon be par for leading players. And we all know he won’t be available to us next year. Bayern or Barca or someone else will be ready and quicker and bigger than us. Now is the time.
Chelsea were 17 points better than Liverpool last year and have added Rudiger, Bakayoko and Alvaro Morata. City will spend north of £200 million. United want to do that too. Spurs are having a harder time of it, but they already have a well-balanced squad. Arsenal & Everton have both improved and are looking for more additions. We have done smart business in Salah, Solanke and (probably) Robertson. But those additions to equate to a 17 point gain in the light of our rivals’ improvement.
Naby Keita, and Virgil van Dijk for that matter, want to come to Liverpool. This is highly unusual for us. We have not been top players preferred destination for far too many years to count without getting depressed. Klopp and Champions League football have given us that edge.
Once you get to the Champions League, you have to stay there. Not one year in, three years out. It took a final day win to seal it last year. These are fine lines. Yet now is the summer to make those lines thicker. To add to the squad in such a way that we begin to leave Arsenal, Everton and United behind.
So let’s keep bidding. 70. 80. 100 million. We can’t afford not to. If Leipzig can turn away that money, then fine. Let’s get Leon Goretzka or Renato Sanches instead. It may be three or four years until we are back in this position. We can’t fall behind this year. We just can’t.