Exclusive Neil Jones column: Liverpool’s improved Lavia bid, Diaz future, Origi West Ham transfer & more

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Liverpool to make improved Romeo Lavia bid but I’d love to see Moises Caicedo play that role in Jurgen Klopp’s midfield

Where else to start this week’s column than with Romeo Lavia? That’s the player Liverpool want in midfield, that’s the player they’ve made a bid for. They made their move over the weekend, with a £37m bid to Southampton. That’s been rejected, but it seems like Lavia is the option Liverpool have settled on.

Southampton obviously want a bigger price, around £50m, and it feels like Liverpool’s offer isn’t a million miles away from that now, taking into account add-ons. It feels like there’s a good chance a compromise could be found, but we’ll have to see how much Liverpool are willing to go up, and how much Southampton might be willing to lower their demands. My current understanding is that Liverpool are likely to go back in with an improved bid, worth in excess of £40m including add-ons.

A few other names have been mentioned as well, even if the Lavia interest seems the most concrete at the moment, but it’s not surprising that the club may have alternatives in mind. Joao Palhinha and Cheick Doucoure have been linked, and of those two I think the latter is far likelier. Doucoure is four of five years younger, so given his age and the money sort of money that would be required for these players, I think he clearly looks a more realistic target. He’s had a decent first season in the Premier League, but I still suspect his asking price quoted from Palace sources of £65-70m would be a little high. But similar money for Palhinha from Fulham, who’s 28 years old, makes that one a lot less likely. And that’s before taking into account that Palhinha also got what looked like quite a bad shoulder injury in a friendly against Brentford over the weekend, so I think we can probably tick him off the list. Doucoure, though, could be one to keep an eye on, depending on what happens with Lavia, as well as with Fabinho and Jordan Henderson.

My ideal target, even if it’s not realistic, would probably be Moises Caicedo. I like Lavia, and think he could grow into a quality first-team player, but Caicedo is a more established player and would be my dream signing in that position. For me, he just ticks every box that you’d want from a Liverpool player to change this team going forward. He’s Premier League-proven, he’s energetic, he’s strong, he can pass, he can run, he’s shown he can fill in at right-back which could work well in a team with a roaming right-back like Trent Alexander-Arnold. Sadly, it doesn’t feel like it’s going to be possible this summer.

Could Liverpool look at Aurelien Tchouameni again?

I think another dream midfield signing could’ve been Aurelien Tchouameni. It was twelve months ago that Liverpool worked really hard on trying to get Tchouameni from Monaco. He was identified as the priority to come in and play alongside Fabinho to begin with, and then eventually succeed him. I think Liverpool felt they had a good chance of persuading the player to join, but then Real Madrid came in and once they were there and ready to make the move, Liverpool lost out.

I think that was a real disappointment for Liverpool in terms of their planning. They put all their eggs into that basket really, and if you look at what happened last season, and how the last twelve months have played out, they didn’t sign anyone else in that ilk and they did end up being a bit short of quality in terms of reliable midfield players, and it came back to haunt them with a below-par campaign overall.

The question now, in terms of Liverpool ever being able to revive this deal, is would Real Madrid be willing to let him go? There’s been some speculation after he played perhaps a bit less than he would’ve liked in the second half of last season, but you can see with signings like Tchouameni, as well as Eduardo Camavinga and Jude Bellingham, that Real Madrid are really assembling a good young core of players.

Along with the likes of Vinicius and Rodrygo up front, you can see what Madrid clearly hope will be their next big team, and I think Tchouameni is going to be a big part of that. I would personally be very surprised to see them giving up already on a player they pushed so hard and paid so much money for.

I’m sure Liverpool would like to have that chance to revive their interest, but I can’t see Real giving them the chance to do so – unless they really decide to go strongly for Kylian Mbappe this summer and they need to free up some funds, but that doesn’t currently look like being the case.

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