The coach of Liverpool transfer target Matheus Nunes fears the midfielder will be leaving the club and moving to England this summer.
Sporting Lisbon are believed to rate the 23-year-old midfielder at £43 million, a fee only Wolves have shown a willingness to match thus far.
Liverpool and Wolves aren’t alone in their respective pursuits of Nunes, with Manchester City and Spurs also interested in signing him.
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A report from Correio da Manha has suggested Sporting have already lined up their replacement in the form of Braga’s Ricardo Horta.
The signing of the Portuguese international would be a fantastic move from Klopp's side for several reasons.
Firstly, he’ll improve their depth in quality in the centre of the park.
At the moment, Jürgen Klopp has decent options to pick from in that area of the pitch, but the drop off in class when the likes of Thiago, Fabinho, and Jordan Henderson aren’t available is notable.
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Nunes, with his technical quality and ability to navigate an opposition press expertly, would go some way towards filling that void.
Nunes also offers ideal specificity in his profile from a Liverpool viewpoint. What the Reds don’t have is a like for like replacement for Thiago Alcantara within their squad.
Thiago hasn’t managed to start more than 25 games in a league season since joining Liverpool and is now the wrong side of 30.
And when he is unavailable, which is fairly regularly, he is missed.
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Nunes is the sort of player who would be able to replace the Spaniard with the pair sharing similar traits in their profile.
Crucially, given they are very different midfielders, signing Nunes also wouldn’t need to impact Liverpool’s potential pursuit of Jude Bellingham next summer.
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Topics: Liverpool, Liverpool Transfer News & Rumours, Sporting Lisbon