Why the Youri Tielemans to Liverpool rumours make perfect sense

Not since the summer of 2018 have Liverpool faced a transfer window as transformative as the one that lies ahead.

Their triumphant finish to the season proved there is life in the old dog yet, but last season was a clear warning sign that Jurgen Klopp's squad is ageing and at risk going stale.

As the gradual rebuild begins, replacing Georginio Wijnaldum will be high on the list of priorities, and it won't be an easy task. His consistency and reliability aside, he was moulded over five years into the ideal midfielder for the system that took the Reds from Europa League purgatory to the top of the mountain.

Whoever comes in to take his role in the squad, then, will have to be malleable, while also possessing the ability and the dependability to pick up the slack in the short-term.

That's why links with Leicester's Youri Tielemans, which re-emerged in Belgium this week, make so much sense.

Tielemans has revived his career since arriving in the Premier League, putting a fairly disastrous spell at Monaco to one side to rediscover the form that had him earmarked as Belgian football's latest wonderkid earlier in his career.

He has taken to the Premier League like a duck to water and has been a central part of the Leicester team who enjoyed the second best season in their existence. Thanks to his screamer against Chelsea, they won the FA Cup for the first time ever, and narrowly missed out on the top four.

With nine goals and six assists to his name this season, he is perhaps the most exciting option of those who have been linked with a move to Anfield. And while there may be doubts that he can deliver the sort of week-in, week-out consistency that made Wijnaldum such a favourite of Klopp's, Leicester fans might beg to differ.

He started 37 of their 38 league games last season, and missed just 62 minutes of action en route to their fifth-placed finish. In many ways, he has been Leicester's Wijnaldum, holding things together and dictating play even when the options around him have been badly depleted by injury.

His driving runs from deep reflect the sort of thing Liverpool's midfield often lacks, while he provides enough cover defensively to justify his place.

The pieces are nearly there with Liverpool's midfield in the post-Wijnaldum era. In Fabinho, Thiago Alcantara and Jordan Henderson, they have a settled starting trio, while Curtis Jones will grow into an established starter in time for one of the elders to step aside.

But neither Naby Keita or Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain look particularly likely to settle into a regular starting spot, so they need one more they can count on to bridge the gap. Tielemans, at 24, looks as if he fits the bill.

He's different enough to Liverpool's current options, and the moments of magic he can bring to the table will have Liverpool fans watering at the mouth at the prospect of his arrival.

But more importantly, he has a track record of consistency and dependability that make complete sense of the links that have emerged in his homeland.