Sheffield United have signed a £20 million Liverpool transfer target in a major coup just days before the January window closes.
The Yorkshire side have splashed the cash and broke their club record, said the BBC, in order to bring in Sander Berge from Genk. The Norway international had previously been linked with a Merseyside move.
United have signed the 21-year-old on a four-and-a-half-year deal after he impressed during his 98 game spell in Belgium.
We’d previously looked at Sander Berge and his style of play, which is very similar to the way Fabinho goes about his work. This is the type of footballer Liverpool are continually looked at, but with limit openings in the squad it’s unlikely that the youngster would get the first team football he needs.
Napoli were also credited with interest in the 6″ 4′ giant, and this could legitimacy be considered a coup of Sheffield United. They are doing excellent work under Chris Wilder and securing the signature of a highly rated starlet shows they mean business.
For Liverpool, it’s possible that Jurgen Klopp was never too interested in this signing. Although Berge ticks the boxes for age profile, the Reds don’t have any space in the squad and that will only get worse when Herbie Kane and Marko Grujic come back from their loan spells.
Adam Lallana will leave and James Milner has two more years at Anfield, but you couldn’t see Jordan Henderson, Naby Keita, Gini Wijnaldum or Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain being sold to make room for incomings.
It’s more likely that Klopp will keep an eye on how Berge develops, or they will look to land the signing of the next big thing in three years time when Henderson and Wijnaldum enter their 30s and may look for a new challenge during the last years of their career.