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Cash-plus-player offered for Nigerian ace

By Russell Hughes

GENT, BELGIUM - FEBRUARY 17: Moses Simon of KAA Gent shrugs off the challenge from Vierinha of Wolfsburg during the UEFA Champions League round of 16, first leg match between KAA Gent and VfL Wolfsburg at Ghelamco Arena on February 17, 2016 in Gent, Belgium. (Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images)
GENT, BELGIUM - FEBRUARY 17: Moses Simon of KAA Gent shrugs off the challenge from Vierinha of Wolfsburg during the UEFA Champions League round of 16, first leg match between KAA Gent and VfL Wolfsburg at Ghelamco Arena on February 17, 2016 in Gent, Belgium. (Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images) /
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Liverpool have offered a cash-plus-player deal to AA Gent for their ace Moses Simon.

Reports emerging from Nigeria have indicated that the Reds are prepared to offer €13 million as well as loan forward Taiwo Awoniyi in order to secure the transfer of Simon.

Owngoalnigeria.com, which describes itself as one of the top ranked news sites in the country, has wrote that interest is high in Awoniyi and that this’ll help seal the deal. Apparently, Anderlecht and Club Brugge are also interested in the striker, who scored 11 goals for Mouscron last season.

Gent aren’t asking for Awoniyi to be included as a permanent deal, and this suits Liverpool down to the ground. According to the report, Melwood chiefs want to offer the Nigerian a new contract and send him out on loan to a club who can offer Europa League experience.

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Simon missed out on the World Cup due to an injury he picked up while training with the Super Eagles, and would have played an important part in their campaign – wrote the BBC.

But the thigh injury that destroyed his Russia dream will only keep the forward out of action for a month, and won’t impact his pre-season campaign.

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Manager Jurgen Klopp is clearly keeping his options wide open, and Liverpool have been repeadly linked with other attackers such as Xherdan Shaqiri and Nabil Fekir. Interestingly, both Shaqiri and Simon are cut-price options, which would reflect their rotational squad status if they were signed.

At 22-years-old, Simon has the right age profile for Klopp and is likely to improve under the German’s tutelage. With 21 international caps and four goals, the attacker is experienced on a global stage and has played 136 times for Gent, scoring 21 goals and assisting 18.

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For the 2017/2018 campaign, the Nigerian featured 33 times across all competitions, but was disappointing in front of goal as he hit the back of the net six times and only created three other goals.