Not just Szoboszlai: Liverpool also willing to pay up front for 21 y/o; they’ve met his agent – report

Liverpool have reportedly met with the agent of transfer target Gabri Veiga as they seek to win the race for the 21-year-old’s signature.

According to 90min, the Reds are among four Premier League clubs to have held talks with his representative Pini Zahavi, along with Chelsea, Manchester City and Newcastle.

Each of that quartet have indicated a willingness to pay the Celta Vigo midfielder’s €40m (£34.4m) release clause up front, potentially extra if they’re given the freedom to structure the fee in instalments. The LaLiga club are adamant they won’t let their player depart for anything less than the specified figure.

The topic of Liverpool meeting a transfer target’s release clause up front is a hot one, following on from the Reds reportedly doing just that in their £60m pursuit of Dominik Szoboszlai (The Times).

It represents a statement of intent from Jorg Schmadtke and Jurgen Klopp that they’re ready to put the money on the table instantly when it comes to acquiring the club’s primary targets, rather than trying to persuade prospective sellers into accepting instalment packages.

The apparent willingness of the other English top-flight trio to pay straight up for Veiga may well have motivated LFC into doing the same, as otherwise they’d likely have risked falling behind in the multi-party pursuit of the Celta Vigo gem.

At the moment it looks set to boil down to a four-way shootout between the various Premier League suitors for the 21-year-old, so the negotiating skills of the Reds’ recruitment team could make or break our chances of signing the Spaniard.

If he arrives on top of Alexis Mac Allister and hopefully Szoboszlai, that’d give Klopp three new midfielders aged 24 or under who’ve all impressed in a major European league, a scenario of which Kopites would’ve been dreaming prior to the summer transfer window.

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Reds boss Jurgen Klopp is looking to remodel his squad after a disappointing campaign and has been active in the transfer window already, landing midfielder Alexis Mac Allister from Brighton and striking a deal to add RB Leipzig’s Dominik Szoboszlai for €70m

There is space for the new faces at Anfield as Liverpool have bid farewell to no fewer than three midfielders: James Milner, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Naby Keita.

Milner spent eight years at the club and racked up a cool 332 appearances, and he won’t have to wait long for a reunion with Liverpool after inking a deal to join Brighton.

Like Milner, Keita has also found himself a new club already. The Guinea international has returned to the Bundesliga with Werder Bremen, five years after leaving Germany for Anfield.

Perhaps the most emotional departure of all is that of striker Roberto Firmino. Liverpool have already paid tribute to the Brazilian, who racked up 111 goals and 79 assists in 362 games for the Reds before embarking on a new adventure this summer.

Nothing has been signed just yet but Firmino is a significant target for the Saudi Pro League and is expected to make the move to the Middle East.

The Liverpool academy has also seen the departures of seven talents: Jack Bearne, Fidel O’Rourke, Iwan Roberts, Liam Hughes, Oscar Kelly, Charlie Hayes-Green and Oludare Olufunwa.

Bearne is the only one of the group to have made an appearance for the senior side, coming off the bench in the FA Cup quarter-final against Aston Villa in 2019.