Liverpool Transfer News: EMERGENCY Nico Schlotterbeck plan

Liverpool have lined up Nico Schlotterbeck to be their next star centre-back. Now an emergency plan is in place as a result.

There can be no question that Liverpool need to buy a new centre-back. They’ve got a boat load of reasons to do so, in fact.

Giovanni Leoni’s injury rules him out for the season and immediately leaves Liverpool light at the back. That’s enough to justify some sort of movement in January but it’s not the only factor.

Ibrahima Konate’s contract will expire at the end of the season and he’ll leave the club as things stand. Joe Gomez’s future, too, looks very unclear and reports suggest Liverpool are ready to sell.

In fact, they would have sold if Marc Guehi had arrived as planned. Liverpool already tried to upgrade their options with the Crystal Palace captain, only for the Eagles to collapse the deal right at the last minute.

Then there’s the big one: Virgil van Dijk. He won’t be the best in the world forever and has just one year left on his contract after this season.

Replacing him is a near-impossible task but one Liverpool must take on. We think they’ve found the idea player with which to do that, too.

Nico Schlotterbeck and Liverpool

Liverpool have been strongly linked with interest in Nico Schlotterbeck recently. It’s easy to see why - he’s a fantastic player and almost certainly available soon.

Schlotterbeck’s contract expires in 2027 and while Borussia Dortmund want to agree on an extension, they’re struggling to get one over the line. Now Bild reports of an ‘emergency plan’ being put in place to keep the defender.

That plan is, as of now, to keep Schlotterbeck until his contract expires. Dortmund feel it makes them look stronger if they do so, while it gives them the maximum amount of time to play to his ‘emotions’ and perhaps get a new contract signed.

Now, it’s unlikely that Liverpool want to hear that. The Reds have actually been tipped to make a January push to sign Schlotterbeck, potentially getting ahead of the rest of the pack who view a summer transfer as more likely.

The other side of this is that Dortmund might just be putting themselves in a stronger negotiating position by publicly leaking that they don’t need to sell. No cut-price offers will get it done, then.

But it’s an interesting one for Liverpool. We view Schlotterbeck as an incredibly important transfer, ahead of anything that happened in the summer.

Dortmund will not make it easy, however, and it’ll be a massive fee. Possibly beyond what got Van Dijk to the club in 2018.

For his successor, though, it would absolutely be worth it.

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