A recurring theme which has emerged among recent transfer rumours is for Liverpool and Newcastle to both be linked with the same player from Serie A, with another example coming to light on Tuesday.
Following on from reports suggesting that the two clubs have been in for both Nicolo Barella of Inter Milan and Sofyan Amrabat of Fiorentina, Torino defender Perr Schuurs also appears to be of mutual interest on Merseyside and Tyneside.
According to TuttoMercatoWeb, the Premier League duo have entered the race to sign the 23-year-old, with the last two Italian champions in Napoli and AC Milan also believed to be interested in the Dutchman, who joined Il Toro from Ajax last year.
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Schuurs being linked with Liverpool is nothing new – in fact, he had been mentioned as a possible target for the Reds as far back as 2020, and he even had a trial with the club as a teenager.
The 6 foot 3 was a regular for Torino last season, starting 28 Serie A games and making 33 appearances in total for the club (Transfermarkt), while he was previously hailed as a ‘great Dutch talent‘ by former Ajax sporting director Marc Overmars, who won the Premier League with Arsenal in 1998.
He stood out for his no-nonsense defending, averaging two successful aerial duels and a squad-high 1.7 tackles and 3.2 clearances per game, returns which would’ve placed him among the top five at Anfield for each metrics in 2022/23 (WhoScored).
However, one potential minus point to Liverpool signing Schuurs is that he’s predominantly right-footed, a trait which also applies to every current Reds centre-back (Transfermarkt), so Jurgen Klopp may prefer to bring in a left-footed option if he’s to strengthen the ranks in that position over the summer.
Nonetheless, we can only wait and see whether the Merseyside club push hard to try and sign the Dutchman. Having been beaten to a place in the Champions League by Newcastle this year, LFC could be yearning to get a measure of revenge by snaring one or more of the two teams’ shared transfer targets.