Paul Joyce: Liverpool have decision to make as offer comes in for ‘fantastic’ £20m-rated gem
Liverpool have let a number of young players depart Anfield this month, and another could potentially be set to follow in the next few days.
On Monday night, Paul Joyce reported for The Times that Bayer Leverkusen have submitted an offer to take Tyler Morton on loan, with Xabi Alonso keen to supplement his squad by adding the midfielder.
The 21-year-old was given a fair chance by Arne Slot in pre-season, but amid a realisation that he has several players blocking his pathway to regular first-team action, he’s ‘keen to continue his upward trajectory’ and may find it easier to get minutes with the Bundesliga champions.
The report adds that Liverpool have previously valued the youngster at £20m and that they must now decide whether or not to loan him out to Germany for the 2024/25 campaign.
Morton hasn’t even made the bench for Liverpool in their first two games of the Premier League season, a clear indicator of where he sits within the pecking order when Slot has his full squad available.
LFC have previous when it comes to loaning young players to the Bundesliga, with former Reds Fabio Carvalho and Sepp van den Berg having contrasting fortunes at RB Leipzig and Mainz respectively last season, so there’s an established pathway there to follow.
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If the former Blackburn and Hull loanee feels that he’d enjoy regular minutes under Alonso, it’d be hard to blame him for wanting to make the move, especially with Leverkusen offering Champions League football and a genuine chance of winning silverware after they claimed the double in Germany this year.
From Liverpool’s perspective, allowing the ‘fantastic‘ Morton to depart (in the words of RTE pundit Liam Brady) may risk depriving Slot of squad depth that he could well need later in the season if injuries pile up, and the recent exits of Carvalho and Bobby Clark have already lightened our midfield options.
The 21-year-old’s fate could hinge on whether or not he’d like the temporary move to the BayArena, and whether the Reds feel they can afford to allow another midfielder to depart this close to the transfer window shutting.
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