Report: Liverpool would need to pay £80m+ for ‘special talent’ who could instantly replace 28y/o

Liverpool have discovered the asking price for one player who’s believed to be of interest to the Anfield hierarchy.

Despite the Reds being on course to win the Premier League with matches to spare, several players in Arne Slot’s squad have been linked with summer exits. One of those is Luis Diaz, with Football Insider claiming that FSG could accept offers of £60m or more for the Colombian this summer.

If the Merseysiders were to cash in on the 28-year-old, they’d likely be on the lookout for a positional replacement, and they appear to have eyes on someone who’s already proven in the English top flight.

Liverpool interested in Kaoru Mitoma as Brighton name their price

According to TEAMtalk, Liverpool are among several clubs interested in signing Kaoru Mitoma, who’s expected to leave Brighton in the summer.

With two years remaining on the winger’s contract, the Seagulls are currently in a strong bargaining position and are set to demand at least £80m for the 27-year-old.

However, with the Japan international also attracting renewed Saudi Arabian interest (Al-Nassr made two unsuccessful bids in January), Albion could be open to selling the forward if they receive big-money offers, particularly if they miss out on European qualification.

Mitoma’s a fine player, but we don’t see Liverpool moving for him

Mitoma has shown his quality in English football throughout his time at Brighton, with manager Fabian Hurzeler hailed him as a ‘special talent‘ after a stupendous goal against Chelsea in February and Liverpool’s former director of research Dr Ian Graham admitting that he’d have loved to sign him for the Reds.

However, we’re not sure if he’d be the wisest option for the Merseysiders to pursue this summer.

He’s only a year younger than Diaz and his return of 11 G/A this season (eight goals and three assists in 2,834 minutes) is less than half of the Colombian’s output in a broadly similar amount of time on the pitch (15 goals and eight assists in 2,995 minutes).

Also, as per FBref, the Reds’ number 7 outperforms his Seagulls counterpart in 2024/25 for underlying metrics such as shots (2.71 to 1.82) and shot-creating actions (4.72 to 2.96) per game, xG performance compared to league goals scored (+1.9 to -0.5), pass completion (84.3% to 75.4%) and dribble success (45.3% to 38.1%).

Would it really make sense for Liverpool to sell the 28-year-old for just 75% of the price that they’d likely have to pay for Mitoma, who’s a tremendous player but doesn’t appear to be an upgrade on his positional colleague at Anfield?

Although Alexis Mac Allister and Wataru Endo would both be well-placed to provide firsthand accounts of playing alongside the Brighton star at club and international level respectively, this is one rumoured transfer that we can’t see coming to fruition, but let’s wait and see what happens in the summer.

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