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Liverpool have identified Yan Diomande as their priority transfer target this summer. The 19-year-old RB Leipzig forward has impressed during his breakthrough season in Germany.
Diomande is currently featuring at the World Cup with Ivory Coast, attracting interest from several top European clubs, including Paris Saint-Germain.
Liverpool have already seen an opening bid rejected and remain in negotiations. The Reds are expected to return with a new improved bid of around €115m for Yan Diomande.
Liverpool are however, preparing alternative options should a deal prove too difficult to complete. Among the players being monitored are Koln’s Said El Mala, Brighton’s Yankuba Minteh and Lille’s Matías Fernandez-Pardo. Bradley Barcola is also another player previously considered by the club.
According to transfer expert Ben Jacobs, Liverpool are actively working on the alternatives to maintain leverage in the market and avoid overpaying for their primary targets.
Jacobs told Redmen TV: “As I revealed, three other targets are Mathias Fernandez Pardo, who’s also at the World Cup, Said El Mala, who has had other Premier League interest this window, and Brighton’s Yacouba Mintah.
“So come what may, Liverpool are going to add another attacker, and Yan Diamonde remains their leading target. I think it’s fair to say they’re actively working on those alternatives simply because it gives you leverage in the market as well.
“Liverpool are not the kind of club to put all their eggs in one basket, and if they go all in on Diomande and don’t look at these other names, then they have less leverage.
“So, they’ll want, no doubt, as part of their conversations with Leipzig, for it to be clear that they can move on and there are other viable targets, and they want to be informed by the valuation of those targets too.
“So it can be helpful, as Andrea Berta is doing at Arsenal as well, to kind of concurrently line up multiple deals and then when you’re negotiating with Leipzig, you can point to other availability, other fees, and you can be informed by market movement, and that might mean that you get a better deal, because if Leipzig realised that Liverpool are only looking at Diomande, and Liverpool desperately want Diomande, and there’s competition from PSG for Diomande, and there’s no other options, there’s no other contingencies, there’s no other like for like profiles, then naturally, that price is just going to stay really, really high.
“So it’s smart by all well-run clubs to start that extra sort of contingency planning around some of these other targets but if they can get Diomande, he’s obviously the one that they want.”
Yan Diomande, meanwhile, said that his club future can wait as Ivory Coast prepare for their first-ever appearance in the knockout stages of a World Cup.
He helped Ivory Coast finish second in Group E to secure qualification and insisted his full focus remains on the tournament despite growing transfer speculation surrounding his future.
Diomande said: “Right now, I don’t know. I am not thinking about my future after the World Cup. I am trying to put all my energy into the World Cup and we will see what is going to happen after that. I can say nothing about.”