1 year ago
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Photo by Sebastian Frej/MB Media/Getty Images
Despite continuing transfer chatter, Khéphren Thuram stopped being a target for the Reds when they closed on Dominik Szobszlai.
As Liverpool moved quickly last week to sign Dominik Szoboszlai from RB Leipzig by triggering the attacking midfielder’s €70M release clause, some wondered what that might mean for the Reds’ interest in Nice’s Khéphren Thuram.
Now, we know the answer, as following a pivot over the past two days by club-connected journalists from Thuram and towards Southampton’s Roméo Lavia, multiple reliable reports have emerged today stating that any interest in Thuram has ended.
Reasonably, it makes sense. Liverpool have now spent close to £100M—including triggering Szoboszlai’s release clause in full—on midfielders suited to the two more advanced roles in Jürgen Klopp’s midfield, the position Thuram plays in.
Thuram, despite the highly questionable suggestion by some that he could be useful cover at the six when it’s a role he doesn’t play for club or country and his statistical template is a close match for players like inter’s Nicolò Barella and Barcelona’s Gavi.
Other than being the tallest and blackest of the trio including Alexis Mac Allister and Szoboszlai had he signed, he would have in reality been no better suited to the six than them—and have no more experience there than Jordan Henderson.
Liverpool’s interest, though, was by all accounts real. But when Nice weren’t willing to drop their asking price into a range the Reds believed he was worth, sticking to a valuation above £50M, they saw the more polished Szoboszlai as a better option.
