Liverpool could take advantage of Roma’s desperation to balance the books by launching a cut-price bid for wantaway defender Mehdi Benatia, Football Express News understands.
The Serie A heavyweights are battling rivals Juventus for the big-money purchase of striker Juan Iturbe from Hellas Verona but can only compete if they recoup money from sales.
Having long given up on the prospect of persuading centre-half Benatia to remain at the club beyond the summer, they are now attempting to find him a new club and, as FEN exclusively revealed last week, they have offered him to Liverpool.
His £32million switch to champions Manchester City fell through when Porto’s Eliaquim Mangala arrived in the North-West for a medical at Bridgewater Hospital, confirming the suspicion that the Frenchman has always been the Blues’ number one defensive target.
Roma still value him at more than £30m but the Merseyside giants, despite having money to burn in the wake of talisman Luis Suarez’s imminent departure to Barcelona, are ready to test the water with a significantly lower offer.
A source close to Anfield told FEN they feel landing Moroccan star Benatia for around £20m would represent a superb piece of business.
He is expected to demand somewhere in the region of £3m per year in wages.