Chelsea

Liverpool Join Chelsea & Man Utd In Chase To Sign £43m Bundesliga Star

Liverpool have joined Chelsea and Manchester United in the race to sign Bayern Munich midfielder Renato Sanches this summer, according to reports

by
Fraser Crawford
August 1, 2017

Managers are now pressing ahead with their plans for the summer transfer window so we’ll bring you all the latest news and gossip from around the globe. Today, Liverpool join the chase to sign Renato Sanches…

Liverpool have joined Chelsea and Manchester United in the race to sign Bayern Munich midfielder Renato Sanches this summer, according to a report in the Express.

Sanches was heralded as one of the hottest young talents in Europe when he joined Bayern from Benfica last summer but his time at the Allianz Arena hasn’t gone according to plan.

The Portuguese international has struggled to hold down a regular first team place under Carlo Ancelotti and he’s eyeing a move in order to play more regular football ahead of the 2018 World Cup.

Understandably there has been plenty of interest shown in the 19-year-old and Bayern have confirmed that Sanches will be allowed to leave this summer in order to secure regular minutes elsewhere.

Boss Ancelotti admitted late last month [via the Express] that Man Utd were hoping to sign Sanches while Karl-Heinz Rummenigge suggested they may be prepared to sell if someone put £43m on the table.

The Bayern CEO is quoted by the Express as saying:

“He [Sanches] won’t get enough minutes at Bayern, so we’re willing to negotiate a loan deal and maybe beyond that,”

“If a club are interested in a Bayern player, they must be ready to deal with significant economic figures. We’ll say that it wouldn’t be bad if a £43million offer came in for him.”

This news seemingly also alerted the Premier League champions as Corriere dello Sport reported over the weekend that Chelsea are ready to meet Bayern’s demands to sign Sanches on a season-long loan deal.

Antonio Conte is understood to be in the market for another central midfielder after allowing Nemanja Matic to join United and Sanches would provide good competition for the likes of Cesc Fabregas and new signing Tiemoue Bakayoko.

However, it looks like Liverpool are now ready to join the chase to sign the teenager as the Express are citing a report from Sports Bild that claims Jurgen Klopp is keen to beat Chelsea and United by luring Sanches to Anfield.

The newspaper suggests that Klopp wants to sign Sanches on a permanent deal rather than a loan after supposedly identifying him as a potential replacement for Philippe Coutinho, should he force a move to Barcelona.

However, given that Sanches and Coutinho play in different positions, I’d suggest that if Klopp is after Sanches then it’s because he’s identified him as an alternative target to Naby Keita as RB Leipzig are refusing to sell the midfielder.

We’ll have to wait and see how things develop over the coming days but I think Sanches would be a superb signing for any of the three English clubs being linked so hopefully we see him playing in the Premier League next season.