According to reports from The Guardian, Liverpool want £30million for exit-bound defender Mamadou Sakho should they sell him during the summer transfer window.
What’s the word?
Having fallen afoul of Jurgen Klopp during Liverpool’s pre-season tour last summer, which he was sent home from, Sakho spent the first half of the season rotting in the reserves and the second on loan at Crystal Palace, where he played an instrumental role in keeping Sam Allardyce’s side in the top flight – helping them to wins over Arsenal and Chelsea with fine defensive displays. Accordingly, however, that has convinced Liverpool to raise their valuation of the France international to a whopping £30million, a pretty steep price for Crystal Palace and for a defender who has made just eight Premier League appearances all season.
Don’t Liverpool need defenders?
That they do, which has lead some Liverpool fans to argue Sakho deserves another chance at Anfield. Liverpool have the second-worst defensive record in the Premier League’s top seven after Arsenal, conceding 42 in 37, and the two positions Sakho is capable of filling – centre-half and left-back – have been the real weak spots. Alberto Moreno has proved so incompetent that midfielder James Milner has been entrusted to fill in at No.3 for the vast majority of the season instead, whereas the centre-back department is a real mess.
Although Joel Matip has been a solid addition, the jury’s still out on Dejan Lovren, whilst understudy Ragnar Klavan has struggled to convince – as has Lucas Leiva when pushed back into defence. Nonetheless, Klopp clearly doesn’t feel he can work with Sakho and in terms of style, he’s not a brilliant fit for the way the German wants to play, more old-school bruiser than tricky ball-player. He’s certainly looked a lot more at home in Crystal Palace’s defensive, counter-attacking system.
Who could be interested?
The obvious assumption is a permanent move to Palace and the Eagles fans, not to mention Sam Allardyce, would almost certainly be keen on such a transfer deal this summer. But some of Liverpool’s top seven rivals could well be missing a trick; left-footed centre-backs aren’t that common and Sakho is certainly up there with the best. It’s often forgotten he captained PSG as a teenager, is a fantastic natural athlete and until moving to the Premier League was a key figure in the France national team’s starting XI.
Furthermore, whilst Sakho may not be the most gifted player on the ball – although he’s certainly not as bad as some Liverpool fans made out during his first season on Merseyside – he’s brilliant at the basics, namely flinging his body in the way of trouble and being in the right place at the right time. He should be playing at a higher level than Palace and although they would be seen as pretty controversial moves, he’d probably fit well into the systems currently being used at Everton and Manchester United, whilst a slot in Tottenham’s back three could also work quite well. However, it seems likelier Sakho will be moving down into the division’s best-of-the-rest pack.