In the Football Transfer Tavern of late, our merry band of Liverpool supporters have just touched down to earth following the appointment of Jurgen Klopp and the conversation has now turned to who the new Reds boss might target in the January transfer window.
We say touched down to earth but a few Reds fans in the corner might have had a bit too much to drink when they claim the likes of Robert Lewandowski are in Liverpool’s sights come the New Year!
While the Polish striker won’t be rocking up at Anfield in January, one player who is far more likely to is Borussia Dortmund’s Ilkay Gundogan who became an established German international under Klopp’s tutelage at Signal Iduna Park.
Gundogan has been linked with an Anfield switch by The Express of late, latching themselves onto the fact that the defensive midfielder heaped praise on the Merseyside giants on social media following the appointment of Klopp.
This could of naturally simply been a goodwill gesture and since, Jurgen Klopp has rejected claims that Marco Reus and Gundogan could be following him to Anfield from the Bundesliga.
Then again, the new Reds boss could equally be putting rival suitors and the media off the scent so with that in mind, we’ve devised a list of five players who could end up following Ilkay Gundogan to Liverpool in January.
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Click on the image below to reveal the five players who could follow Ilkay Gundogan to Liverpool in January.
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Anwar El Ghazi
Someone who is set to become far more of a household name over the next couple of years is Ajax’s Anwar El Ghazi who reached a milestone in his career of late having made his senior international debut with the Netherlands in the recent European Qualifiers.
A club used to producing a seemingly endless conveyor belt of exciting young talents, El Ghazi is the latest off the production line at the Amsterdam ArenA and despite being just 20-years-old, he already boasts 16 Eredivisie strikes in just 37 total appearances.
El Ghazi is reportedly in a transfer tug-of-war between both Merseyside rivals Everton and Liverpool and it’s no surprise considering what he has already achieved at such a young age.
Capable of playing on either flank in the winger’s position, El Ghazi is only set to pick up more admirers if he continues developing at his current rate.
Ruben Neves
Like El Ghazi, another of Europe’s hottest young properties right now is FC Porto’s Ruben Neves who has been drawing a growing list of admirers of late.
Playing against Chelsea and defeating the Blues in their recent Champions League tussle, Jose Mourinho’s side have been linked with the signature of the Portuguese Under-21 international but so too have Liverpool.
A defensive midfielder by trade, Metro reported a couple of days ago that Jurgen Klopp himself has instructed Liverpool’s board to sanction a move for the youngster and if true, this is some endorsement of the Porto man’s talents.
With Lucas Leiva not getting any younger and Emre Can deployed as more of a defender – under the Brendan Rodgers regime at least – you can see room in Liverpool’s ranks for another top quality defensive midfielder.
Unfortunately, it would just be to the likes of local lad Jordan Rossiter’s detriment who will be hoping he doesn’t fade away while doing a Jay Spearing over the next couple of years!
Ezequiel Lavezzi
Still not being able to make any regular inroads into Laurent Blanc’s starting eleven over at Paris Saint-Germain, it’s come as a surprise to nobody that Ezequiel Lavezzi’s name has been linked with a Premier League switch yet again.
Starting just two Ligue 1 games so far this season, the writing seems on the wall for the Argentine as nothing more than a bit-part player in the French capital and if he has true ambitions to achieve game time elsewhere, you’d imagine he’d be keen on departing.
The Daily Star claimed a few days back that Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester United were monitoring the former Napoli man’s situation and with Roberto Firmino not setting the world alight in his first couple of months with the Reds, perhaps there is room for another winger / forward after all.
Moses Simon
A lesser known name but somebody who is turning a few heads over in Belgium, Gent’s Moses Simon has been affectionately named the ‘Nigerian Ronaldo’ and is rated at £15 million this January transfer window.
Well, that’s the price Gent have quoted the likes of Liverpool and Tottenham according to The Express and perhaps you can understand it with the player now representing the Belgian club at the very pinnacle of European competition in the Champions League this season.
As we saw back in the summer, acquiring top level strikers was an incredibly difficult task for the likes of Arsenal and Manchester United with options thin on the ground so the likes of left-field options such as Simon might be more sought-after than they might’ve been otherwise.
Neven Subotic
While Jurgen Klopp has of course distanced himself from potentially going back to steal Borussia Dortmund’s crop of talented individuals, he may be quelling media speculation while harbouring real intentions of grabbing one or two by the time January rolls around.
While it would take some doing to steal both Ilkay Gundogan and Neven Subotic from Dortmund in one transfer window, the latter player and Serbian international is somebody else who’s been intensely linked with a Reds switch of late.
In truth, while Liverpool fans would of course love to have Gundogan, they probably require Subotic a lot more given the defensive instability as given off by the likes of Dejan Lovren, Kolo Toure and Mamadou Sakho in their Liverpool careers to date.
No Reds supporter can claim any of those three are that far away from their next gaffe so it’s fair to say that a top quality experienced international acquisition such as Subotic wouldn’t go amiss in terms of rectifying the defence.
