Liverpool are chasing a trio of South American attackers according to the Liverpool Echo. James Pearce last night reported that Sevilla’s Colombian frontman Carlos Bacca and Zenit St Petersburg’s Venezualan striker Saloman Rondon are both on Brendan Rodgers’ radar, while numerous reports over the weekend linked Brazil’s Roberto Firminio with a move to Anfield.
All three are currently involved in the Copa America and Pearce added that Liverpool have representatives at the tournament in Chile. Firminio looked Manchester United bound but the Reds are now looking to rival the old enemy in the chase for the German based Brazilian, who is valued at around £20m by his current club Hoffenheim.
28 year old Bacca - also valued around the £20m mark - scored twice as Sevilla beat Dnipro 3-2 in last month’s Europa League Final and bagged an impressive 28 goals last season, while Rondon, 25, found the net 15 times for Zenit. His asking price is believed to be around £15m. Rondon and Bacca faced off in the Copa America last week with Rondon grabbing the winner as Venezuela beat Colombia 1-0.
Another name thrown into the hat over the weekend was that of Juventus striker Fernando Llorente, who looks to be on his way this summer with the ‘Old Lady’ on the brink of signing Mario Mandzukic from Atletico Madrid. Llorente is a quality player but would be a peculiar signing given the Spaniard’s style of play.
There is a suspicion that a lot of these ‘leaks’ are just posturing by Liverpool to try and force Aston Villa to lower the price for Rodgers' number one target, Christian Benteke. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time the club used the Echo for such a tactic. It would seem a futile exercise given that the Midlanders are desperate to keep their prize asset and would be delighted if Liverpool walked away. It’s like flirting with other girls to make the one you really want jealous, even though she has zero interest in you and is in fact massively relieved when you turn your obses… interest, onto someone else.
Villa surely won’t be entertaining offers under Benteke's buyout clause (£32.5m) unless they feel they have no choice but to sell, and that will only happen if the player starts making a nuisance of himself or goes 'on strike' to make his position untenable, as Dejan Lovren did last summer for example. So perhaps this reported interest in other forwards (last week it was Charlie Austin) is more about forcing Benteke into action?
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