Aston Villa have an Ezri Konsa-sized hole in central defence and nine days to fill it.
The £51m plus add-ons Arsenal paid on Friday looks handsome on a balance sheet and awful on a teamsheet, and Unai Emery is now working through a three-man list of replacements.
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As per The Athletic, contact has been made with Club Brugge over one of them.
That approach follows an £18m bid plus add-ons for Taylor Harwood-Bellis being rejected by Southampton, whose 24-year-old was left out of Saturday’s 2-1 win over Stoke with his future unresolved.
Villa and Southampton remain apart on valuation.
The Brugge deal, if it happens, would cost more.
The 22 year old who stands at 1.88m has 33 Belgian league appearances and three goals last season, 10 Champions League matches, 872 minutes, one goal, 53 balls recovered, 92.9% passing accuracy and a top speed clocked at 31.27 km/h.
Twenty Ecuador caps, three of them at the World Cup this summer.
He is under contract at Brugge until 2029, and was bought from Independiente del Valle four years ago for around €4m.
Liverpool know the file intimately.
Joel Ordonez was, in January, reported in Ecuador to be one signature away from Anfield, with Michael Edwards leading talks and terms broadly agreed.
It collapsed.
Brugge wanted north of €40m and knocked back Crystal Palace on deadline day.
The interest revived in June once Ibrahima Konate left for Real Madrid on a free, with Brugge said to be open to selling at about €45m.
Liverpool went elsewhere again.
That decision looks stranger by the week.
Andoni Iraola inherited a squad shorn of Mohamed Salah, Konate and Andy Robertson, and his defensive recruitment amounts to Jeremy Jacquet, agreed back in January, plus a loan for Ronald Araujo from Barcelona carrying a non-obligatory buy option.
Giovanni Leoni is recovering from a knee injury and Joe Gomez broke down again in pre-season, which at one point left Virgil van Dijk as the only fit senior centre-back.
Victor Munoz, £34.5m from Osasuna, is the marquee arrival.
Liverpool open against Newcastle today.
Villa’s summer has been busier and stranger.
Emery has brought in Zion Suzuki, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Alejandro Garnacho, Joao Gomes, Matteo Ruggeri and Johan Manzambi, while publicly conceding that both Emiliano Martinez and Ollie Watkins could still leave.
He called it an intelligent market.
The Europa League holders, fourth last season and back in the Champions League, travel to Brighton this afternoon with Victor Lindelof and Pau Torres the likely pairing.
Deadline day is Tuesday 1 September.
There are still so many ways it can play out.