Liverpool transfer news: Journalist crushes hope of £70 million striker move

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 07: Jurgen Klopp, Manager of Liverpool looks on prior to the Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Manchester City at Anfield on October 7, 2018 in Liverpool, United Kingdom. (Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 07: Jurgen Klopp, Manager of Liverpool looks on prior to the Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Manchester City at Anfield on October 7, 2018 in Liverpool, United Kingdom. (Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)

Liverpool Football Club will not make a £70 million transfer move for striker Nicolas Pepe according to one journalist from a national newspaper.

Well that didn’t last long. No sooner had rumors resurfaced of Liverpool making a huge transfer move for Lille forward Nicolas Pepe than they have been dashed by a top journalist.

Dominic King is the Merseyside beat writer for the Daily Mail and is currently on tour with Jurgen Klopp’s squad in America. He was tagged in a post containing a doctored picture of Nicolas Pepe in this season’s Liverpool shirt and tagged eight journalists and media outlets.

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The tweet was telling the news breakers  “It’s time to announce Pepe to Liverpool”. However, King was not having it and replied clearly: “No it isn’t. And it will never be, either.”

You can read the exchange here.

This is a blow to LFC fans who have been begging the club to sign another attacker for the first team after the reserve forwards have struggled to dominate against Borussia Dortmund and Sevilla on the US tour.

King doesn’t just claim that the club won’t be signing Pepe now but they ‘never will. This backs up previous reports from Melissa Reddy at ESPN and the Liverpool ECHO who have both shot down the rumor this summer.

Many Liverpool fans have resigned themselves that the club won’t make any additions to the first team squad with the transfer window set to close in two weeks time.

Articles from Chris Bascombe (The Telegraph) and David Lynch (Evening Standard) have reasserted that the club would like to buy a forward. However, the club have a strict set of criteria for that player –  high quality, versatile, young and under £40 million – that will be tricky to find before the deadline.

Divock Origi and Rhian Brewster are the duo charged at present to backing up Roberto Firmino, Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane but we will see in the next few weeks if Klopp thinks that is enough.