Liverpool are now advancing in their pursuit of Crystal Palace’s Cheick Doucoure this summer.
Miguel Delaney dropped the seismic update with the Independent on Wednesday morning, confirming that the Reds could even end up signing the 23-year-old for less than £60m.
That’s quite the drop-off from the minimum £70m asking price the Daily Mail previously claimed the Eagles would set.
Whilst we’d expect Roy Hodgson’s outfit to demand a fair chunk more than £50m for their holding midfielder – particularly in light of the league season having already begun and our own significant budget – at this point, we can hardly get picky in the negotiations.
A meeting with Bournemouth awaits at the weekend and securing a genuine No.6 for that fixture would represent a huge boost.
That said it will be the following fixture against Newcastle that Jurgen Klopp and Co. will have their eyes on as the absolute latest deadline for a new signing, and rightly so.
If we can manage to snap up Doucoure for under £70m, however, it would have to be considered something of a coup that sets us up nicely to land a top left-sided centre-half before the window closes.