Liverpool have done some good transfer business so far but look defeated in their pursuit for Carlos Bacca as AC Milan reach agreement with player.
Liverpool need significant reinforcements for next season after a horrible campaign and the Merseysiders didn’t waste anytime and have already signed five player, with Nathaniel Clyne coming in soon as an imminent sixth signing of the summer.
However, the Reds are yet to address the glaring striker need and have been linked with Sevilla’s Carlos Bacca for a while now.
Bacca has been viewed as an alternative target to Aston Villaa s Christian Benteke. The fact that Aston Villa are not lowering their A?32.5million asking price for Benteke and the Reds are refusing to pay that amount, led the club to enquire about the availability of both Bacca and Zenit St Petersburg striker Salomon Rondon.
The 28 year old’s agent insisted that the player had plenty of suitors and confirmed Liverpool’s interest and also stated the player was considering the offer as Liverpool were a good project, but insisted that a firm bid had to be lodged for the striker.
a We have had lots of interest but so far there has been no official approach,a he said.
a I spoke with Carlos on Wednesday night and we agreed we need a real solution.
a Clubs are telling him not to sign anything until they have made an offer but we are still waiting.
a Liverpool and another English club are among those that have shown an interest but there are also clubs in Italy. What is clear is that they must meet the release clause but at this stage nobody has.
a We are really looking at three things a number one is to have a happy family situation for his wife and son because he had a bad experience in Belgium. The second is to find a good team with a good project. Before he went to Chile, we wrote down a list of clubs that fit that description and Liverpool was on that list.
a The third question is the contract. He has a good salary in Sevilla but we know how much clubs in England can pay.”
.
However, it looks that Liverpool are defeated even before they could make a formal approach for the player with Italian journalist Gianluca Di Marzio claiming AC Milan had reached an agreement for the Colombian.
David Amoyal wrote for Di Marzio’s website: “The Rossoneri have been in contact with the entourage of striker Carlos Bacca in recent hours, they have an agreement in principle with the player. Now Milan needs to negotiate with Sevilla, who is asking for his a 30 million exit clause- there are discussions to spread the payments over multiple years. There is optimism in Milan’s camp, they believe they surpassed other clubs in the race including Roma”
While anything can still happen and AC Milan have lost a lot of their targets from advanced position this summer, it looks like Liverpool will have to pursue other options.
The Reds are working on getting Aston Villa to lower their asking price for Belgium international Christian Benteke, who is still considered their number one striker target, and value him at around A?25m. It is believed they could go up to A?28m for the player, but will not pay his A?32.5m release clause
