Liverpool’s first three attempts to strike a deal to sign Florian Wirtz were knocked back by Bayer Leverkusen, but the Reds are expected to try again for the Germany international.
The Premier League champions’ latest bid for the 22-year-old came to £113m including add-ons, but that was still short of the Bundesliga club’s strict asking price of £126.5m.
Nonetheless, Richard Hughes is set to have at least one more go at reaching an agreement to secure this eagerly awaited transfer – and reports from the player’s homeland suggest that a conclusion to the saga could be just around the corner.
How much are Liverpool expected to offer for Wirtz?
According to Bild on Monday morning, Leverkusen are now awaiting a ‘final written offer’ from Anfield for Wirtz, with the clubs having come ‘significantly closer’ to agreeing a fee in recent days.
A prospective fourth bid from Liverpool for the playmaker is expected to comprise a €140m (£118m) package consisting of a fixed transfer fee and ‘realistic additional payments’. It could also include additional bonuses, although these are cited as ‘very difficult to achieve’.
While that figure would still be slightly short of the Bundesliga club’s reported asking price, it’s claimed that the transaction is ‘expected to be finalised in the next few days’. That would tally with Florian Plettenberg’s assertion that a medical could be ‘possible’ over the coming week.
£118m for Wirtz might be enough to get the green light
As suggested by Bild‘s report, all parties involved in the prospective transfer would likely have been quite relieved to hear the full-time whistle of Germany’s defeat to France on Sunday, with Wirtz coming through the entire match without appearing to suffer any injury issues.
A significant body blow on national team duty over the past few days could’ve seen the deal collapse, but now that any such fears seem to have been allayed and the Nationalmannschaft have completed their UEFA Nations League campaign, that should hopefully pave the way for the transaction to be finalised soon.
An improved offer of £118m could be good enough for Leverkusen to give the thumbs-up, with Daily Mail journalist Lewis Steele citing that amount as what Die Werkself have been holding out for as they now haggle over ‘small details and bonuses’.
Even if it isn’t quite the £126.5m that some sources had cited, it might still be sufficient for the Bundesliga side to give the green light for the final phase of the prospective transfer to be conducted, with Wirtz hopefully having a medical on Merseyside in the next few days.
It seems to have been at the ‘almost there’ stage for a while by now, but the coming week will ideally see one more big push from Liverpool to get a deal over the line and seal what’d emphatically be their all-time record signing.
