Despite allowing top target Timo Werner to move to Chelsea because of a lack of funds, Liverpool have now been tipped to launch a big-money move for Wolverhampton Wanderers winger Adama Traoré.
90min revealed back in January that Jürgen Klopp's side were keen on landing the Spaniard, with Wolves' asking price of £70m seen as relatively reasonable in a pre-coronavirus market.
Unfortunately, such a happy world is long gone, and football has been hit with a serious loss of money. Affording a deal for Traoré is likely to be impossible, yet The Mirror seemingly believe that Liverpool are going to try.
The report states that Wolves could raise £100m by selling both Traoré and striker Raúl Jiménez, and you'd assume that means both players would be around the £50m mark. You know, around the same figure the Reds just rejected to pay for Werner.
If Liverpool were confident they had that kind of money to spend, they surely would have thrown it at Werner, who was Klopp's top priority and had been begging for a switch to Anfield over the last few months. The two even had a virtual catch-up during the lockdown, prior to Chelsea swooping in.
Traoré would be tempted by the idea of a move to Liverpool, according to the report.
Cool. Yeah. Probably. I mean, they are the defending European champions and soon-to-be Premier League winners. But if they haven't got the money, they haven't got the money.
Let's not forget, this is a team who tried to furlough their staff because they didn't believe they could comfortably survive the financial impact of the coronavirus outbreak. Fan pressure saw them renege on their plans and now their transfer budget has taken a hit.
Speaking this week, Klopp said on the club's transfer prospects: "It's rather quiet here (at Liverpool) at the moment.
"I think it's safe to say. If you want to take it seriously and run a normal business and depend on income and have no idea how much you will earn... especially because we don't know when we can start playing with spectators again.
"Discussing with the players about things like salary waivers and on the other hand buying a player for £50-60m, we have to explain."
Klopp does want some more firepower in attack to allow him to rotate Sadio Mané, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah, but the decision to snub Werner means that Klopp is going to have to look for cheaper options than Traoré. Meanwhile, the possibility of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations being delayed means finding cover for Salah and Mane is no longer urgent.
Instead, low-cost deals, free transfers and loans could well be Liverpool's preferred tactics this summer, and if that doesn't float your boat, at least it means wonderkids like Harvey Elliott and Curtis Jones could benefit from a lack of major recruitment activity.
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Source : 90min