Liverpool must not spend £20m on left-back Jamal Lewis

Liverpool mustn’t spend big on Jamal Lewis.

Apparently Norwich won’t even entertain a bid of less than £20m for Jamal Lewis, which makes perfect sense if you’re Norwich and don’t want to set any unhelpful precedents.

From the Reds perspective a bid of £9m seems fairly reasonable as Lewis is still a youngster at 22, the same age as Trent Alexander-Arnold and he is relatively unproven in the big time, with only 28 Premier League appearances.

While he is a left-back specialist with heaps of talent and promise, at £20m, he is way too pricey for the cash strapped Reds in this window.

If Liverpool can’t manage to negotiate this deal down to workable numbers, they should most definitely pass on him at this point.

This same issue revolves around any of the youngsters on Liverpool’s radar for their center-back need. With Sepp van den Berg and Ki-Jana Hoever already on the books it make no earthly sense to splash the cash for yet another youngster in the same position.

This is the shape of the dynamic facing Jurgen Klopp and the transfer committee in this window as they are severely limited in their options in this regard.

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While they need two or three quality reserves across the defense and midfield, they can ill afford to spend more than £30m for these players in total.

Thankfully this puts Thiago beyond their means.

Even if they were to sell Loris Karius, Xherdan Shaqiri and Harry Wilson, they wouldn’t have enough resources from these players to make a big name, big time purchase.

I really don’t see Liverpool selling either Wilson or Shaqiri at this point. Both still have value and use to the club. Especially Wilson.

This is the primary reason why the gaffer has been hinting at a sparse signing window for the Reds. This is also why I have pressed for Michael Edwards, and his committee to exercise extreme caution in their summer transfer business.

They just can’t afford to make the mistakes other clubs have made in the past several years with outlays of huge capital without an adequate return on investment.

While the Reds definitely need cover for Robertson, and a replacement for Dejan Lovren, it remains to be seen how this might shake out with limited resources to deal with.

Most clubs are well aware of the situation at Liverpool, so any ideas of Liverpool buying on the cheap and getting a quality player just isn’t in the cards at this point.