Liverpool might transfer for a participant who excelled beneath Arne Slot at Feyenoord, with reviews in Portugal claiming curiosity in Benfica midfielder Orkun Kokcu.
Kokcu has been linked with Liverpool on plenty of events, together with earlier than his transfer from Feyenoord to Benfica in 2023.
On the time, it was claimed {that a} delay of their advances led the Dutch-born Turk to go for a transfer to Lisbon, the place he has up to now scored 11 objectives and laid on 14 assists in 52 video games for Benfica.
It was beneath Slot at Feyenoord that Kokcu’s popularity was enhanced, coming by means of the academy and settling as one of many coach’s most essential gamers.
There ought to come as no shock, then, that the 23-year-old has once more been touted with a transfer to Anfield – and even perhaps as early as January.
That’s based on Portuguese newspaper File, who declare that Liverpool have scouted Kokcu already this season together with in the course of the 4-0 win over Atletico Madrid within the Champions League that noticed him discover the again of the web.
Nevertheless, the identical publication has insisted that Benfica don’t intend to promote their No. 10 mid-season and would demand a payment of at the least €80 million (£67m).
Additional reviews have come from the Lisbon-based Correio da Manha, with it steered that Liverpool are pushing to convey Kokcu to Merseyside.
Whether or not these claims are to be believed is up for debate, notably given how often the Reds are linked with gamers from Portugal.
Slot made Kokcu a star
The likes of Alan Varela, Otavio and Fabio Vieira have been linked previously, whereas the so-called pursuit of Sporting CP supervisor Ruben Amorim was fuelled by native sources.
Nevertheless, there could also be substance in claims of Liverpool’s curiosity in Kokcu, notably as it may be argued that Slot’s squad continues to be one brief in midfield.
Although Kokcu is nominally a No. 10, he has developed into an all-rounder in midfield, not solely as an actual risk within the last third but in addition a hard-worker off the ball.
He and Slot shaped a robust bond at Feyenoord, with one pundit claiming over the summer season that he took the Turkiye worldwide from a “‘lazy’ No. 10” and “made him a really match participant, an expert participant, and earned some huge cash for the membership and him.”
The midfielder himself has credited his former coach with serving to treatment the insomnia that dogged not solely his kind on the pitch but in addition his life off it.
“It was tough, there was so much in my head. The coach was one of many few who knew about it,” Kokcu advised De Volkstrant final 12 months.
“He’s greater than a coach, he understands precisely take care of individuals. That’s why I cried once I hugged him after the championship recreation.”
Because it stands, Liverpool appear extra seemingly so as to add to their squad subsequent summer season, relatively than in January, however the switch hierarchy will stay opportunistic.
