Liverpool are linked with two players they almost certainly won’t be buying this summer—and the date for the return of the Premier League has been announced.
Premier League on the way back
It’s not official from the league itself yet, but every major news outlet broke the details on Thursday afternoon that the Premier League will return on 17 June.
The games in hand—Villa v Sheffield United and Man City v Arsenal—will be played first, before the first full round of games on the weekend of 19 June—with the Reds to face Everton.
If it goes ahead as planned, it’ll be 100 days between the last game to be played and the next.
Here’s how the Liverpool fans reacted to that exciting news!
An entirely new right side, or an entirely new set of lies?
If there are two things we don’t expect Liverpool to do this summer, it’s to sell a key starter to make room for a new purchase, and to buy a new right-back.
How clever, then, for European rumours to suggest exactly those things.
Spanish sources reckon the Reds will offload Shaqiri and Lallana—which we pretty much knew anyway—plus Sadio Mane, who is still wanted by Real Madrid, in favour of a £60 million move for Adama Traore.
More chance of Djimi Traore being resigned than us selling Sadio, we think.
The other move is a more out-there suggestion: a free transfer bid for PSG’s Thomas Meunier, supposedly to provide cover for Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Not sure the prime-of-his-career, Belgium regular, Champions League-calibre full-back will quite fancy an entire season on the bench, in all honesty, but that’s Le10Sport’s take on the matter.
Baby steps, promising kids
A good day for the youngsters, with news of their short- and long-term futures and involvements with the Reds.
- Hoever, Elliott, Glatzel, Van den Berg and Jones are some of the youngsters involved in our return to group training with the seniors
- Abdi Sharif has penned a new deal after a long-term injury and Ben Woodburn has been offered another loan chance for next term
- And the excellent young Leighton Clarkson has revealed what Jurgen Klopp has said he thinks of him and which roles he could be used in
Quickfire LFC news
- Troy Deeney says the “integrity” of the season and the Reds’ title win has been lost (TIA)
- Liverpool are now worth £2.26 billion according to KPMG (Echo)
- Andy Robbo has said the squad “missed Melwood like mad” as they step up training (LFC)
- And the son of our former god-awful owner George Gillett has had a takeover bid for Scottish club Hearts rejected (BBC)
Around the Prem
- Teams could play local ‘friendlies’ against rivals as part of a build-up to fitness (Athletic via TIA)
- David Luiz is out of contract and looks set to leave Arsenal, presumably because they’ve finally realised he can’t really defend (Sky)
- Chelsea want Ajax left-back Nico Tagliafico, which is great, but they are now just slowly turning into the Dutch team without actually getting their best players (Telegraph)
- And United and Real Madrid want Eduardo Camavinga and to be honest the most intriguing thing about it all is that Metro think they have the ‘exclusive’ inside track to either of those two clubs (Metro)
Stupid rumour of the day
Maddock, for the Mirror, reporting that the Reds have withdrawn interest in Timo Werner, minutes before Squires, for the Echo, reports that’s entirely false. Both media outlets are owned by the same company, Reach, and we can’t help but be slightly cynical about the whole situation—which probably hasn’t actually changed at all anyway.
Tweet of the day
Likely #EFC v #LFC will be played on June 20 as football returns.
Crucially, #MCFC v #AFC seems certain to be played on June 17.
Should City lose, Liverpool winning the derby would crown them Premier League Champions.
Strap. Yourself. In.
— David Maddock (@MaddockMirror) May 28, 2020
What we’re reading
How’s your memory? Take this FourFourTwo quiz and name every PFA Team of the Season for a decade!
And an insight into the lack of home victories in the Bundesliga, and what that might mean once Premier League games start up again, on BBC Sport by Emma Sanders.
Fan Comments