Florian Wirtz's weekly wage shows Liverpool are SERIOUS

Florian Wirtz's weekly wage at Liverpool shows the Reds are serious. Here's the number reported.

Liverpool are closing in on a deal for Florian Wirtz. The difficult bit has now happened - they've come to an agreement with Bayer Leverkusen over a €150m package.

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Now, everyone still needs to go through the formalities of it all before it's sealed. Hopefully, that happens next week after Wirtz has a medical and everything is signed.

But we're close. Liverpool have somehow managed to win the race for one of the world's biggest talents - something they've never actually done before.

Fernando Torres was perhaps the last time a truly world-beating talent picked Liverpool. Now Wirtz will make the same move and the Reds are getting an incredible player.

Of course, elite talents don't come cheap and Liverpool have had to pay-up here. First there's the €150m package (though, 'only' £100m of it is guaranteed). Then there's the wage.

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Florian Wirtz's wage

Sky Germany's Florian Plettenberg claims Wirtz will earn around €20m gross per year at Liverpool, before bonus payments. That works out to around €384k each week at a minimum.

In pounds, that's just shy of £300k. It's an awful lot of money that would place Wirtz as the third-highest earner at Liverpool behind Mo Salah and Virgil van Dijk.

Now, our understanding at Anfield Watch is that the figure presented there is high. We believe Wirtz will actually earn roughly £180k as a basic weekly wage.

Bonuses can take that significantly higher, of course, but we don't believe it's going to be a basic wage in the £300k range. Maybe after a contract extension or perhaps with some bonuses included, Wirtz will earn at that level.

That plan, of course, will be for Wirtz to push on over the next year or two and get onto Salah's level. Then we could see him earn into the £400k range.

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Liverpool don't like paying those kinds of wages, naturally, but you do hope to have a player who commands that kind of money. Wirtz could certainly be that kind of player.