Liverpool may transfer for a participant who excelled beneath Arne Slot at Feyenoord, with stories in Portugal claiming curiosity in Benfica midfielder Orkun Kokcu.
Kokcu has been linked with Liverpool on quite a few events, together with earlier than his transfer from Feyenoord to Benfica in 2023.
On the time, it was claimed that a delay of their advances led the Dutch-born Turk to go for a transfer to Lisbon, the place he has thus far scored 11 objectives and laid on 14 assists in 52 video games for Benfica.
It was beneath Slot at Feyenoord that Kokcu’s repute was enhanced, coming by the academy and settling as one of many coach’s most necessary gamers.
There ought to come as no shock, then, that the 23-year-old has once more been touted with a transfer to Anfield – and even perhaps as early as January.
That’s based on Portuguese newspaper Document, who declare that Liverpool have scouted Kokcu already this season together with through the 4-0 win over Atletico Madrid within the Champions League that noticed him discover the again of the online.
Nonetheless, the identical publication has insisted that Benfica don’t intend to promote their No. 10 mid-season and would demand a price of a minimum of €80 million (£67m).
Additional stories have come from the Lisbon-based Correio da Manha, with it instructed that Liverpool are pushing to carry Kokcu to Merseyside.
Whether or not these claims are to be believed is up for debate, significantly given how commonly the Reds are linked with gamers from Portugal.
Slot made Kokcu a star
The likes of Alan Varela, Otavio and Fabio Vieira have been linked prior to now, whereas the so-called pursuit of Sporting CP supervisor Ruben Amorim was fuelled by native sources.
Nonetheless, there could also be substance in claims of Liverpool’s curiosity in Kokcu, significantly as it may be argued that Slot’s squad remains to be one quick in midfield.
Although Kokcu is nominally a No. 10, he has developed into an all-rounder in midfield, not solely as an actual risk within the remaining third but in addition a hard-worker off the ball.
He and Slot fashioned a powerful bond at Feyenoord, with one pundit claiming over the summer time that he took the Turkiye worldwide from a “‘lazy’ No. 10” and “made him a really match participant, knowledgeable participant, and earned some huge cash for the membership and him.”
The midfielder himself has credited his former coach with serving to treatment the insomnia that dogged not solely his type on the pitch but in addition his life off it.
“It was tough, there was lots in my head. The coach was one of many few who knew about it,” Kokcu informed De Volkstrant final yr.
“He’s greater than a coach, he understands precisely find out how to cope with folks. That’s why I cried once I hugged him after the championship recreation.”
Because it stands, Liverpool appear extra doubtless so as to add to their squad subsequent summer time, quite than in January, however the switch hierarchy will stay opportunistic.
