Liverpool “prepared to sign a cheque” for the £78 million defender, “wanted” by Man City and Man Utd

A highly-regarded French defender has been linked to Liverpool, but Man Utd and Man City are also said to be interested.

Leny Yoro, defender for Lille, is a highly regarded player, and Liverpool is’ready to sign a cheque’ for him, according to French media.

The 18-year-old centre back, who was previously the second youngest player in club history behind Eden Hazard, came up via the Lille academy and made his senior debut for the team one day after turning 16 years old.

French publication Le10sport.com stated last month that while the Reds were monitoring Yoro, they apparently wanted to move forward with a potential acquisition while the January transfer market was still open. According to the source, Manchester United and Manchester City have also contacted Lille on the player.

Despite Yoro’s recent 18th birthday in November, Lille President Oliver Letang is keen to cling onto him as he has already made it into the France Under-21 team. Because of this, Lille expects to make a demand of about £78 million for the player this month in the hopes that he will extend his contract.

The fact that multiple teams have expressed interest in Yoro strengthens Lille’s negotiating position and allows them to demand a high price because Paris Saint-Germain is also considering the player.

He has 37 senior appearances under his current contract, which runs out in the summer of 2025, and three goals. Joel Matip is nearing the end of his contract with Liverpool, therefore the club will probably be looking to add a centre defender in the summer.

The former Schalke 04 player suffered an ACL injury against Fulham, and will be sidelined for the remainder of the campaign. Liverpool now lacks a centre back, which may cause the Reds to push back their ambitions by half a year. Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez, Jarell Quansah, and Ibrahima Konaté are Liverpool’s current center-back possibilities.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has already stated Liverpool’s position on a potential January center-back signing, notwithstanding the rumours originating from France.

Matip made the following statement last month, following the confirmation of his ACL injury: “In eight years, I just never understood people talking about transfers like they are the easiest things in the world. Bring in a player and, as if we had limitless funds, find the necessary amount.

“It’s really beyond my comprehension. Fans and everyone else talk about it. Tell me a team that wishes to offload a top-tier centre back; it has to be the right player. They must be a center-half for Liverpool, not just any center-half. Joel is expected to be out for an extended period of time. That is very detrimental to us. But it’s okay, we still have four centre backs in this lineup.

The team dynamic would have been entirely different with one person not involved if we had a fifth member in already.

“The way things were was ideal. Does it remain flawless? Yes, as long as we can stick to those four. If not, the quantity of games approaching will make things a little trickier. Since other teams don’t place elite centre backs under our Christmas trees and tell us to keep them for however long we need them, I haven’t given it much thought yet, but I don’t think so.”

More news……

Wataru Endo accomplished a feat not witnessed at Liverpool in eighteen years in their victory over Burnley

On Boxing Day, Wataru Endo made history by starting for Liverpool against Burnley, a feat not witnessed at the club in eighteen years. All of Jurgen Klopp’s faith lies in the Japanese international.

Wataru Endo got the start for Liverpool against Burnley in their Premier League match on Boxing Day. He achieved something by doing so that the Reds had not seen in 18 years.

Liverpool hasn’t played a game in thirteen days, as Michael Reid noted on Twitter. Since January 2006, no player has been able to replicate Endo’s feat of having started every single one.

Rotation was less popular back then than it is today. Consequently, a number of players—Steven Finnan, Jamie Carragher, Sami Hyypia, Steven Gerrard, Harry Kewell, and Peter Crouch—started five games in a span of thirteen days.

But since managers started to limit the amount of games players started, nobody has done it. Endo was unusual back then, and he didn’t really need to start the game.

Endo’s time at Liverpool got off to a rough start. In fact, he seemed out of his element in some of his early games, which were just plain awful.

But because Jurgen Klopp persisted in starting him, the holding midfielder is currently the most reliable member of the starting lineup. Naturally, part of that is that, with Stefan Bajcetic and Alexis Mac Allister still sidelined due to injuries, Endo is the only holding midfielder on the team.

However, it also demonstrates how much Klopp believes in the player. Endo was genuinely one yellow card away from punishment going into the Burnley match. The manager played him for the entire ninety minutes, not only when he got off to a good start.

He also never did pick up the yellow, and on New Year’s Day, he’ll be available to play against Newcastle United. Given the current course of events, it is reasonable to anticipate that he will lead.