Gossip: Liverpool signing two Hull defenders

Daniel Storey

LIVERPOOL WILL SIGN ROBERTSON…
Sometimes a transfer blindsides you and is close to completion before we’d even realised it was a thing. That’s the case with Andrew Robertson leaving Hull City for Liverpool this summer.

Hull can be relegated on Sunday, and the papers have already started picking apart the squad. With the future of Marco Silva not yet secure, it’s clear that a few players will have their eyes on a move rather than playing another season of Championship football.

In the Daily Mirror, Neil Moxley writes that Liverpool will announce the signing of Robertson as soon as the transfer window opens. It’s a move that makes massive sense: Robertson is 23, highly-rated, Liverpool need a left-back and the player only has 12 months left on his contract.

 

…AND LIVERPOOL AND TOTTENHAM WANT MAGUIRE
Sticking with that same Neil Moxley story in the Daily Mirror, and he also writes that Liverpool aren’t happy with only signing one Hull defender. Jurgen Klopp is apparently interested in signing Harry Maguire.

Maguire has earned plenty of plaudits this season, and has made it clear that he will look to move to a bigger club this summer. Everton and Newcastle have both previously been mentioned as interested parties, but Moxley throws Liverpool and Tottenham into the mix.

‘Kop contacts have been ringing former Reds players at Hull to get the lowdown on Maguire’s character during the past fortnight,’ Moxley writes. So just Lazar Markovic then, who isn’t even a former Liverpool player but a current one.

Moxley then also calls Maguire a ‘former Sheffield United trainee’. I mean he did also play 166 matches for Sheffield United, Neil.

 

CHELSEA TO RIVAL SPURS FOR BARKLEY
This isn’t the first time that Chelsea’s interest in Ross Barkley has been mentioned. In March, the Daily Telegraph had a story that Chelsea were mulling over making a £100m offer for Barkley and Romelu Lukaku.

Now the Sunday Express report that Antonio Conte does indeed want Barkley, and is prepared to go against Tottenham to land his man. Mauricio Pochettino’s own interest in Barkley has been reported semi-regularly over the past three months.

Barkley was given an ultimatum by Ronald Koeman this week to sign his contract or be sold. Can’t help feeling that Koeman would be happy to sell and reinvest the proceeds.

 

LANZINI WANTED BY EVERYONE?
Oh West Ham. No sooner does one of your signings show some brilliance and consistency after you plucked them from relative obscurity then the big boys start circling and threatening to take your lunch money. First Dimitri Payet, now Manuel Lanzini.

The story is that West Ham have stuck a price tag of £30m on Lanzini to ward off a growing number of Premier League admirers. Those admirers include Liverpool, Tottenham and Arsenal, who we’re told would be prepared to pay the Argentinean more than £100,000 a week.

It’s when Moxley calls Lanzini a ‘striker’ that we get a little dubious, but we’ll let it slide.

 

AND THE REST
Chelsea will offer Antonio Conte a new four-year deal, which will double his wages and see him become the club’s highest-paid manager… Everton have made the first move in their pursuit of Sunderland keeper Jordan Pickford by lodging a £10m offer… Steve Bruce has been asked to plot Aston Villa’s Premier League promotion push on just a £1m budget… Tottenham are hoping to rake in £3m per event at their new stadium by hosting E-Sports.