Liverpool won the Premier League last season, and they are acting like it. Arne Slot’s side have spent a lot this summer, and there is more still to come, with FSG recognising the importance of consolidating this position of power.
With Eintracht Frankfurt’s Hugo Ekitike on the cusp of sealing his £79m move to Merseyside, Liverpool have the Darwin Nunez upgrade they crave.
Though much work has been plied in the summer market, there is more to be done. Luis Diaz is slated to move to Bayern Munich, after all.
Should he leave, there’s no question that the Reds will need to find themselves a replacement.
Liverpool's shortlist of Diaz replacements
With Diaz looking more and more likely to leave Liverpool this summer, the likes of Real Madrid’s Rodrygo and Newcastle United star Anthony Gordon have been touted as potential replacements.
The problem with such targets is that they would cost a steep amount of money. Perhaps too steep. While Liverpool could pull such deals off and remain within profit and sustainability good books, would it not be more worthwhile to target an up-and-comer for a shrewder figure, with so much quality already within Slot’s squad?
That’s why the Reds are seemingly ready to lodge a bid for Lyon’s Malick Fofana, who has been making waves in Ligue 1 over the past 18 months.
According to reports, the sale of Chiesa will advance FSG’s transfer plans, with the Belgium winger having been on Liverpool’s radar for many months. The Merseysiders are “expected to move for the Belgian” once the Italian departs.
Lyon value the 20-year-old as high as £51m, but Liverpool sporting director Richard Hughes will be set on securing his signature for a cheaper fee, chopped into instalments.
Why Liverpool should sign Malick Fofana
Fofana is a top talent, but he’s not yet even sighted the horizon on which his full potential is surmounted. Still, across 62 appearances with Lyon (whom he joined from Belgium club Genk in January 2024), he’s scored 15 goals and supplied seven assists.
Last term, the versatile winger hit 17 goal contributions despite only starting 23 matches across all competitions.
There’s a long way to go, but Fofana might even emerge as an even bigger talent than Ekitike in the long run, who is at a further stage in their development right now, true, but with Fofana already doing as well as he has over the past few years, there’s little question that he could be among the finest wideman in football in just a few years.
And looking at how Slot succeeds at coaching young talents to incredible levels, this is underscored further. Journalist Antonio Mango has drawn attention to Fofana’s “game-changing potential”, while journalist Dev Bajwa has praised his “electric” pace.
Should Liverpool sell Diaz, this is the man to go for. And that’s without even shining a light on Cody Gakpo, who played with regularity off the left flank for Slot’s team last term and thus would ease the burden that a youngster like Fofana would shoulder when making their way onto the senior Premier League stage.
You need only look at Ekitike’s growth in recent years. The 23-year-old left Reims for Paris Saint-Germain in a £30m deal in 2022 (rejecting Newcastle United) where he got lost in the crowd and jumped over to the Bundesliga, with Frankfurt.
Ekitike’s final term in Ligue 1 was with PSG in 2022/23, and from that peripheral campaign you perhaps don’t get the most accurate gauge on his skill set during that youthful stage in his homeland.
But the season before, with Reims, makes a firmer comment. From that, we can examine the teenage Frenchman’s quality and see how he compares to Fofana, who turned 20 in March.
Matches (starts)
29 (16)
24 (15)
Goals
5
10
Assists
4
3
Shots (on target)*
1.1 (0.5)
1.3 (0.8)
Big chances missed
4
6
Pass completion
84%
71%
Big chances created
6
3
Key passes*
0.9
0.7
Dribbles*
0.8
1.0
Tackles*
1.1
0.8
Duels won*
2.9
4.1
Ekitike is a centre-forward, but he’s mobile and athletically dynamic. At that point in his journey, the soon-to-be Liverpool star was fielded out on the left, arcing inwards in a showing of that natural predilection for goalscoring.
Both, furthermore, are firm defensive presences, tackling at a rate that bespeaks their quality as their side’s first line of defence.
But goals are Fofana’s forte, and his innate clinical edge could see him become an even more dangerous force than Ekitike, who is three years his senior.
Fofana ranked among the top 10% of attacking midfielders and wingers across Europe’s top five leagues last season for non-penalty goals scored and the top 2% for progressive carries per 90, as per FBref, perfectly illustrating that whipped blend of pace and potency.
A carry is considered progressive if the ball is moved towards the opponent’s goal at least 10 yards from its starting point or is carried into the penalty area.
It goes without saying that there would be a period of transition in which Fofana would not perform with the smooth completeness of Diaz, not look on the same level as Ekitike (who might himself require a bit of time to adapt to the pace of the English game).
But, nonetheless, Liverpool could strike gold by opting against spending something in the £100m ballpark on one of Gordon or Rodrygo and instead spending a more astute figure on Fofana, who is young and talented and hungry to prove himself.
It would be a better deal in the long run, and one which would see Liverpool enjoy the fruits of their labour which will have grown the wide forward into one of Europe’s most feared players all the same.
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