Sources: Klopp gives green light to box-office Liverpool January signing after ‘huge news’
Liverpool are pushing ahead with signing a new midfielder in January after Arthur Melo’s devastating blow, sources have told Football Insider.
The deadline-day loanee arrival from Juventus is facing up to four months on the sidelines with a muscle injury sustaining in training.
Liverpool are planning to turn to the January transfer market to beef up a midfield that has already been badly hit by a series of injury blows to key men.
Manager Jurgen Klopp has given the green light to the club’s recruitment team to step up plans to bring in a midfielder able to slot straight into the first team.
It could mean a stop-gap signing like Melo, or even potentially a box-office capture that the club have been seeking long-term.
It is believed that Jude Bellingham is a top target for Liverpool going into the new year and they are already laying the groundwork for what would be a potential club-record deal.
But the Merseysiders face extensive competition for the Borussia Dortmund sensation from the world’s elite clubs and that race cold hot up even further if his outstanding form continues.
As revealed by Football Insider, Klopp is also a huge admirer of Declan Rice, whose West Ham contract expires in the summer of 2024 and who has rejected offers to extend it.
Melo’s injury is “huge news”, as one source said, in the context of the midfield problems that have already deprived Klopp of Naby Keita, Curtis Jones and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain for almost all of the season so far.
It further increases the reliance on senior trio Thiago Alcantara, Jordan Henderson and Fabinho, as well as the ever-reliable James Milner and rising star Harvey Elliott.
In other news, Kieran Maguire: Liverpool could seal ‘bragging rights’ over Man City as £175m deal agreed