Player Keen On Anfield Move As Liverpool Table £15m Bid For Real Madrid Outcast

As the opening of the summer transfer window gets set to open for business, managers are working hard identifying targets and lining-up potential deals so we’ll bring you all the news and gossip. Today, Liverpool are linked with Asier Illarramendi….

Liverpool have tabled an improved £15m offer for out-of-favour Real Madrid midfielder Asier Illarramendi and the player is keen on making the move to Anfield, according to the Mirror.

Illarramendi made his name at Real Sociedad before earning a big-money move to Madrid in 2013 but things haven’t worked out according to plan for the 25-year-old as he’s struggled to establish himself at the Bernabeu.

The midfielder made just 10 league starts under Carlo Ancelotti last season and his chances of regular action aren’t expected to be much better under new boss Rafa Bentiez, so a move away from the club beckons this summer.

The Spanish international has been strongly linked with a move to the Premier League in recent months and the Mirror claim that after seeing their opening £10.6m offer rejected, Liverpool have now returned with an improved £15m plus add ons bid.

We’ll have to wait and see whether Madrid accept this latest offer but the newspaper suggests that Illarramendi knows he isn’t in Benitez’s first team plans so is keen to make the move to Anfield in search of regular first team football.

The Madrid squad is due to return to pre-season training on July 10 and the Mirror claim the player wants his future resolved before that point, so Liverpool shouldn’t have to wait too much longer before they find out whether their offer has been accepted.

Brendan Rodgers has already been extremely busy in the transfer market but he doesn’t look like slowly down any time soon as he tries to build a squad capable of breaking into the top four at the very least next season.

READ MORE –> Liverpool transfer news

Illarramendi is a deep lying playmaker who would be able to control the tempo of Liverpool’s build-up play in front of the defence and he’d be a big upgrade on the likes of Joe Allen, so I think he’d be an excellent addition if they could pull it off.

If he does make the move to Anfield this summer, Illarramendi would become Liverpool’s seventh major signing following the arrivals of James Milner, Adam Bogdan, Danny Ings, Joe Gomez, Roberto Firmino and Nathaniel Clyne – who is due to arrive from Southampton after the Reds had an offer accepted last week.