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One of the big shocks of the last few days was with Martin Zubimendi – Liverpool were working on this deal for one week in public and more than one week in private, and they had the feeling that Zubimendi wanted to go to Liverpool, he was tempted by the project, tempted by the club, tempted by Premier League football.
But, after thinking about it, and after a lot of pressure from Real Sociedad, including a new contract proposal from the club, though it’s impossible to compare what they were offering him to what Liverpool were ready to pay, Zubimendi decided to change his position and stay loyal to his club.
At one point, Liverpool also discussed offering Stefan Bajcetic as part of the negotiation – there was a possibility to include the young Spanish midfielder on loan as part of the Zubimendi deal, but Liverpool preferred to pay the release clause rather than giving Sociedad Bajcetic on loan. So, it all collapsed and Sociedad were able to keep Zubimendi.
Many fans have been asking about alternatives for Liverpool in midfield, but at the moment I’m not able to mention other names, we will see. I don’t want to put names out just for the sake of it.
Liverpool will assess options and we will see, otherwise they can continue with current midfield. In my personal opinion, they need a player like Zubimendi was; they miss something in that area of the pitch.
Another big Liverpool story we saw yesterday was a report in Spain about Luis Diaz to Manchester City being agreed, but all I can say is that I don’t have this information, I can’t confirm this information because sources at both Man City and Liverpool are denying it. City are denying an agreement with Diaz, while Liverpool are denying any approaches for the player, with Barcelona also being linked with him in many reports. Liverpool guarantee that they have received no approaches, and also that they want to continue with Diaz.
Diaz has been linked with Barcelona, as mentioned above, but we also know they have been keen on Nico Williams this summer. Still, he now looks set to stay at Athletic Bilbao and so they are looking at other options.
One of those options is…
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