Liverpool could spend up to £127m on Wirtz…and former PL defender still claims it’s a bargain | OneFootball

Florian Wirtz appears to be edging tantalisingly close to becoming Liverpool’s all-time record signing…and a former Premier League defender has suggested that the Reds could still be getting a bargain.

There now appears to have been a major breakthrough in the Merseysiders’ pursuit of the Bayer Leverkusen star, with Fabrizio Romano reporting on Tuesday night that the clubs have verbally agreed a ‘deal in principle’ for a package which could amount to €150m (£127m) including add-ons.

David Ornstein subsequently told Sky Sports News that there’s ‘no agreement yet’ for the 22-year-old, but he fully expects that one will be struck sooner rather than later.

Wirtz hailed as a ‘£150m’ player

Wirtz’s impending transfer to Liverpool was discussed on the latest episode of The Football Fill-In with Ben Foster, and former top-flight defender Paul Robinson (ex-Watford, West Brom, Bolton and Birmingham) has suggested that the Reds might actually be underpaying for the Germany international.

He proclaimed: “What a player, what a player! The way the market is going, the prices that players are being bought for is ridiculous. He would be in the £150m bracket if you’re looking at that type of player with how creative he is…he’d be some player, for any team.”

(Photo by Alex Grimm/Getty Images)

Liverpool clearly believe Wirtz could be a transformative signing

Liverpool’s most recent offer for Wirtz amounted to £113m in total (Daily Mail), and they still might need to come up significantly on that figure to land the 22-year-old, but the direction of travel is very much towards a deal being struck.

If the final package that Leverkusen accept does end up totalling £127m or so, it’d represent an unprecedented show of faith from the Reds, and the fee would speak volumes for the enormous talent that the German possesses.

Yes, spending that amount of money on a single player is a high-stakes gamble, but we know from how FSG operate that it’s a calculated one. There’s a risk that he could end up being regarded as a big-money flop, but conversely it could be a game-changing transaction which takes LFC to the next level.

Upon the respective arrivals of Mo Salah (£37m), Virgil van Dijk (£75m) and Alisson Becker (£67m) at Anfield, all three were dismissed by rival supporters as overpaid duds in waiting, yet they’ve each had a transformative impact at Liverpool and proven their transfer fees to be relative bargains.

The expectation among the Reds’ hierarchy is that Wirtz will have a similar effect, which is why they’re prepared to make him the club’s first £100m+ acquisition. As ever, history will judge whether it proves to be money well spent – our firm belief is that it will!