According to a new report, Liverpool is considering using Ben Doak, a player who is considered to be a Scotland international, as a makeweight in a deal that involves one of their most important transfer targets.
Doak, who is currently on loan at Middlesbrough while the club competes in the Championship, has been one of the most outstanding performers for the club this season under the direction of Michael Carrick as they strive to secure a play-off spot.
Doak has not participated in a league game since January 25 due to a thigh injury that required surgery. He played in 23 of the possible 26 league games for Boro, scoring three goals and seven assists. However, he has not played since then.
At the beginning of the year, the 19-year-old was the target of multiple bids from potential buyers. In point of fact, Liverpool turned down offers regarding the highly sought-after winger from both Ipswich Town and Crystal Palace, both of which are Premier League clubs.
Ipswich reportedly approached Liverpool with a bid of £15 million, while Palace reportedly made an offer for Doak that was worth £16 million. Both of these offers, however, were not sufficient enough to meet Liverpool’s valuation of the player.
According to The Times, Liverpool believes that he is worth closer to the price of thirty million pounds, while a more recent report from The Sun quoted an asking price that was somewhere in the neighbourhood of twenty-five million pounds.
As a matter of fact, the same report suggests that Liverpool could use Doak as a “bargaining chip” in any deal for Milos Kerkez or Antoine Semenyo, both of whom have performed exceptionally well for Andoni Iraola’s Bournemouth this season.
During the past few months, Kerkez has been linked with a number of Premier League clubs, including Manchester City and Manchester United, both of which have already made contact with the player’s representatives.
Kerkez, however, is said to “favour a move” to Anfield over the two Manchester clubs, according to a report that was published in January by The Independent Paper.
It is believed that Richard Hughes, the director of football for Liverpool, who was working at Bournemouth at the time that Kerkez walked through the doors at the Vitality, plays “a major part” in the player’s way of thinking.
During the course of this season, the highly regarded Hungary international has made 32 appearances for the Cherries. It has been suggested that Bournemouth is willing to make a deal for him that is somewhere around the sum of fifty million pounds.
While this is going on, Semenyo is one of the players that Liverpool is looking into as part of their process of evaluating potential future targets for Arne Slot’s second season as manager.
xz
