Richard Hughes AGREES £70m future Liverpool transfer

Richard Hughes has agreed a brilliant deal for Liverpool.

This new era of the Reds is slowly coming together. After a horrendous run of defeats Arne Slot has gotten back to winning ways against Aston Villa and Real Madrid.

Things still aren't entirely perfect. There are question marks over how you integrate the likes of Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak into this very exciting team.

And there are of course still holes to be filled in the squad. Among them chiefly the centre-back department still looks a little bit short.

Liverpool tried to strengthen it in the summer but in actual fact Slot's depth has gotten worse. Jarell Quansah left the club and the man who came in his place, Giovanni Leoni, has suffered a terrible injury that rules him out for the rest of the season.

Missing out on Marc Guehi means Liverpool are just one injury away from total disaster and having to use Ryan Gravenberch or Wataru Endo as a back-up option.

They are likely to sign a centre-back in January. Whether that will be Guehi or someone else remains to be seen.

But long-term, the backline is going to go through a massive transformation in the coming years. It's inevitable.

There's so much uncertainty surrounding the future of Ibrahima Konate. He has still not signed a new deal and Liverpool could lose him on a free come the end of the season when his current contract expires.

Virgil van Dijk has less than two years left on his contract and at 34-years-old, it remains to be seen whether he will stay beyond his current terms.

Joe Gomez's injury record and the fact that Liverpool were open to selling him to AC Milan last summer means he likely doesn't have a long-term future at Anfield either.

So, the only current Liverpool centre-back who is guaranteed to stay at Anfield for many years to come is Leoni. However, much depends on how he comes back from his injury and there are still so many unknown variables in his development given his age.

Hughes definitely thought about this situation when he agreed to sell Jarell Quansah in the summer.

He didn't just let him join Bayer Leverkusen, he struck put £70m agreement in place to buy-back Quansah from Leverkusen as per a recent report.

And their agreement goes even further. As we wrote previously, Liverpool also have a pre-agreement for a contract with Quansah if that £70m buy-back clause was triggered.

Hughes would not have done that if he didn't seriously consider him as a future option at Anfield. Liverpool officials still hold him in high regard. It's merely that they knew that he needed regular minutes to develop in order to reach his full potential.

Quansah is getting those minutes at Leverkusen right now. And he's catching the eye. In his latest Champions League performance he helped his side to a clean-sheet against Benfica, while completing the most dribbles (2) on the pitch and covering 11km and making the most clearances (5).

It was an impervious performance and the it's one that confirms his return to the club is inevitable.

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