What are Liverpool cooking?

Throughout this transfer window, I’ve advocated for Hugo Ekitike as the best realistic striker signing on the market for Liverpool. I’ve said this assuming that Newcastle’s price for Alexander Isak is “piss off.” But today’s fresh rumours have me wondering if the Reds might reel in another £100m fish.

Nico Schira is reporting that Newcastle have a contract agreement in place with Ekitike. Meanwhile, Florian Plettenberg says that Eintract Frankfurt have rejected an €80m bid, “mainly due to the payment terms.” Seems like normal negotiation stuff, I’m sure they can sort it out.

Why would Newcastle spend €80m (about £70m) on a player who occupies the same position as their best player? Perhaps if they were willing to sell that best player. As David Ornstein pointed out today, No. 9 is now Liverpool’s main priority, and Isak would be the most obvious target if Liverpool wanted to sign the best player possible.

Friend of the program and Newcastle blogger Kev Lawson pointed out that Isak and Ekitike have pretty similar looking data profiles, in addition to the obvious physical similarities — they’re both really tall, really fast, and much better dribblers than aerial threats despite their size.

We’re not sourced up to actually report this, but if I remember my divination classes correctly, the tea leaves are spelling out “Isak to Liverpool.” If he’s made it clear to Newcastle that he is not interested in signing a contract extension, it’s the right decision by them to sell at the top of Isak’s market, and when a ready-made replacement is sitting there on the market. It’s also a good decision by Liverpool to buy the best striker available to them if they can afford it.

—KM

Other news and rumours

• In other Liverpool-related gossip that I find to be less credible, they’re apparently interested in Rodrygo. I don’t know how he fits into a team that has Mohamed Salah and just spent £115m on Florian Wirtz.

• Especially if they’re not interested in selling Luis Diaz. Bayern Munich have had a bid of €67.5m rejected. Apparently Diaz would like to be allowed to talk to them.

• Bayern have also been linked to Leandro Trossard as a backup plan, which makes a lot more sense for an older stopgap, given the fees involved.

• And with Jamal Musiala suffering a possible season-ending injury at the Club World Cup, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Bayern sign multiple attacking players. We didn’t talk about this report suggesting a bid for Xavi Simons last week, but I’m finding it a lot more credible given RB Leipzig’s recent activity. I think that Simons is going somewhere soon, because…

• RB Leipzig have had bids accepted for two wingers. 18-year-old Yan Diomande is a bit more of a project, but did get La Liga minutes last season for Leganes. Johan Bakayoko, however, is a bit more of a ready-made Simons replacement. He put up big numbers for PSV Eindhoven last year and feels like someone they'll sell for 3x the fee to a Premier League club in 2 years.

• Real Madrid have announced the signing of Alvaro Carreras and uh, lol.

• Cristhian Mosquera to Arsenal is close to being completed. He’s very physically impressive and a good passer, but doesn’t have the aerial and ball-winning numbers to go along with the tools. He’s only 21, and Arsenal are making a reasonable bet that they can refine a very toolsy prospect.

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