Liverpool have lost a host of midfielders this summer, with James Milner, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Naby Keita leaving on free transfers and Fabinho and Jordan Henderson heading to Saudi Arabia. So far, Liverpool have improved their midfield ranks with the captures of Alexis Mac Allister, Dominik Szoboszlai and Wataru Endo.
Liverpool sporting director Jorg Schmadtke pushed hard to replace Fabinho with either Moises Caicedo or Romeo Lavia. Incredibly, though, Chelsea managed to beat him to both transfers.
Chelsea smashed their own Premier League transfer record by paying Brighton £115million for Caicedo, while also spending £58m to sign Lavia from Southampton.
Those moves forced Schmadtke to go for a more left-field option, as he eventually brought in Japan captain Endo from Stuttgart for around £16m.
But Endo is 30 years old, which he is not a long-term solution. Liverpool could therefore do with landing a younger midfielder to become his deputy, which is where Fluminense star Andre comes in.
On August 5, it emerged that Andre was ‘sold’ on a move to Anfield. However, Brazilian source Globo then revealed that Fluminense did not want to sell the 22-year-old until the conclusion of their Copa Libertadores campaign.
Globo have now provided the latest on Andre’s situation. They claim Liverpool are taking concrete steps to bring Andre to the Premier League, as Schmadtke has sent a ‘verbal offer’ worth €30m (£25.5m) for him.
Liverpool eye Andre as Wataru Endo deputy
The bid has not been officially sent just yet, though it seems that will happen very soon. But the problem for Liverpool is that £25.5m will not be enough to get Fluminense to part with the star.
Fluminense have made it to the quarter-final of the Copa Libertadores and are still hopeful of winning the coveted competition.
The second leg of Fluminense’s eight clash against Olimpia will take place on August 31, the day before the transfer window shuts in the UK.
As such, if Fluminense make it through to the semis, then they will hold firm on Andre. And Liverpool will have to bid way more than that £25.5m figure to strike an agreement.
Even if Fluminense are knocked out of the competition, it may be too late for Liverpool to finalise a deal and get the transfer to reach completion before the September 1 deadline.
As such, it would make sense if Liverpool put their swoop for Andre on hold for now and reignited their interest in him during the January window.
While Jurgen Klopp would rather land an understudy to Endo immediately, the new arrival does not tend to get injured too often. This means he should be able to play a majority of Liverpool’s games until Andre potentially arrives to provide backup in the winter.
