Liverpool and Barcelona club badges (Photo by Stu Forster, David Ramos/Getty Images)
Liverpool are reportedly lining up a potential transfer move for €60million-rated Barcelona centre-back Ronald Araujo this summer.
The Uruguay international could be allowed to leave Barca at the end of this season, and it looks like Anfield is emerging as an increasingly likely destination for him.
Liverpool want Araujo amid doubts over Virgil van Dijk’s future, and it seems the player himself is also open to listening to their proposal, with talks expected to intensify soon, according to Fichajes.
Araujo could be available for around €60m as Barcelona feel they have reasonable depth in defence, so can afford to let him go.
This is not the first time recently that we’ve had speculation about Araujo’s future, with another Fichajes report claiming Manchester United are also keen on him.
Ronald Araujo to Liverpool to replace Virgil van Dijk?
Araujo has shone during his time at Barcelona and could surely be ideal to come in and strengthen Arne Slot’s defence if he ends up losing Van Dijk at the end of his contract this summer.
There’s still no clarity on the Netherlands international’s future, with all three of him, Mohamed Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold now very close to becoming free agents.
Araujo is not quite in Van Dijk’s league, but he’s up there with the finest defenders in Europe on his day, so could do an important job alongside Ibrahima Konate in the LFC back four.
Overall, though, Liverpool fans will surely just be crossing their fingers that something can be done to get Van Dijk to sign a new contract.
As per BBC Sport and others, it looks like there’s now little hope of the Reds keeping Trent Alexander-Arnold, but if they can keep Van Dijk and Salah that would be quite a significant consolation.
Losing all three would be a disaster, though a fine signing like Araujo would be a decent way to start repairing the damage.
