Liverpool are still interested in Barcelona midfielder Franck Kessie after signing Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai already this summer, and could soon further negotiations with the 2023/24 Premier League campaign looming.
Who are Liverpool signing this summer?
That's according to Spanish outlet Sport, who claim that La Blaugrana boss Xavi Hernandez is preparing for the Ivorian's departure from the club this summer as they look to restore their war chest.
Kessie knows he will not hold a regular starting position, and Liverpool – alongside Tottenham Hotspur and Juventus – are attentive to the situation, with the Old Lady believed to have lodged an offer already.
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Reds manager Jurgen Klopp will perhaps be enticed by the reported price tag, with Kessie's signature only requiring an expenditure of €15m (£13m).
What is Franck Kessie good at?
Liverpool will kick their Premier League season off with a match in west London against Chelsea, and the midfield still feels like it needs work despite the aforementioned acquisitions.
James Milner, Naby Keita and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain departed in June upon the expiry of their contracts, while Fabinho and captain Jordan Henderson have joined the wave of Saudi Arabian transfer activity this summer.
Romeo Lavia is being targetted as the club's new holding midfielder, but the signing of a powerful midfield force such as Kessie would go a long way toward providing apt depth ahead of a term where the club will be targetting silver-laden success and a return to the Champions League.
Despite only playing a peripheral role with the La Liga champions after joining from AC Milan on a free transfer last summer, Kessie still demonstrated his skill in passing and as a driving force, completing 87% of his passes and succeeding with 60% of his attempted dribbles.
Once dubbed "sensational" by reporter Carlo Garganese, the 26-year-old is a powerful player with an aptitude for barrelling forward into the danger area, ranking among the top 12% of positional peers across Europe's top five leagues over the past year for touches in the attacking penalty area and progressive passes received per 90, as per FBref.
And during his final two seasons in Italy, winning Serie A in his final campaign, Kessie would record average Sofascore match ratings of 7.18 (20/21) and 7.07 (21/22), completing 88% and 89% of his passes, scoring 13 and six goals, and forging 1.4 and 1.3 tackles per game.
He would be the perfect replacement for Keita, who succumbed to severe injury issues at Anfield and missed 46 matches across the past two seasons, having also been branded "not good enough" by Reds legend, Didi Hamann back in 2021.
Keita signed for the club for £48m in 2018 but proved to be a disastrous signing in hindsight, with his dreadful Sofascore rating of 6.47 last term in the Premier League confirming his departure, completing just 78% of his passes, averaging just 0.6 tackles per game.
The Guinean has hardly been the "beast" that Kessie is, as claimed by Sacha Pisani, and with Liverpool desperate to rekindle the robustness and verve of Liverpool's midfield, it could be the signing to make to offer Kessie a route back to prominence and serve as a massive upgrade on the woeful Keita.