Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has accepted a second bid from Liverpool for midfielder Federico Valverde, according to reports.
The Reds are looking to sign at least one or two more midfielders this summer with Jurgen Klopp waving goodbye to Naby Keita, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and James Milner on free transfers.
Numerous midfielders have been linked with a move to Anfield this summer after that position was seen as a key reason for Liverpool’s underperformance over the past season.
Alexis Mac Allister has already arrived in a £35m deal from Brighton after an impressive campaign for the Seagulls and Argentina, who he won the World Cup with in the winter.
And yesterday Spanish publication Nacional claimed that Liverpool have made Real Madrid midfielder Valverde a target this summer with the Reds prepared to pay €70m for his services.
They insisted that the Uruguay international – who has also been linked with Manchester United – ‘can become the bomb of the summer’ with his ‘surprise’ exit from Real Madrid now on the cards.
Valverde has started to drop down the pecking order under Carlo Ancelotti with new signing Jude Bellingham, Eduardo Camavinga and either Luka Modric or Toni Kroos making up the Italian’s preferred three in Real Madrid’s midfield.
And now Nacional are back today with claims that Liverpool have upped their offer from €70m to €90m for Valverde with Los Blancos president Perez saying ‘yes’ to their latest bid.
Liverpool ‘can take advantage of the doubts that exist around the Uruguayan international’ with Real Madrid finding their latest bid ‘very difficult to reject’.
The report adds that Valverde could be the ‘sacrifice’ necessary to provide Real Madrid the funds to go after Kylian Mbappe this summer with the Frenchman entering the final year of his contract at Paris Saint-Germain.
But Liverpool could face a challenge to persuade Valverde to swap the Bernabeu for Anfield as he ‘does not seem willing to leave Madrid under any circumstances’.
Valverde is currently ‘comfortable’ living in the Spanish capital and it’s still ‘necessary for the 24-year-old footballer to give Klopp the OK’.
There were rumours earlier in the year that Liverpool were in the race to sign Bellingham ahead of Real Madrid but it never worked out that way.
And The Athletic journalist James Pearce insists that the Reds “never had any indication from the Bellingham camp that Anfield was his destination of choice”.
Pearce said in The Athletic’s Mailbag: “Firstly, I would have loved to have seen Bellingham join Liverpool this summer.
“He’s a class act and I think he would have ticked all the boxes. However, I could also see the sense in Liverpool deciding they couldn’t justify committing such a large chunk of their transfer kitty to one signing when they clearly needed three or four new faces this summer.
“Yes, the guaranteed fee is only around £90million ($114.4m), but that will rise to £115m with add-ons. Another important factor is that Liverpool never had any indication from the Bellingham camp that Anfield was his destination of choice.
“Even if Liverpool had stayed in the race, I still think he would have ended up at Madrid.”