Report: £52m beast among four candidates Liverpool are ‘actively assessing’ for summer move | OneFootball

Liverpool are understood to be ‘actively assessing’ four candidates for one position in Arne Slot’s squad ahead of the summer transfer window.

There’s been plenty of movement both into and out of Anfield in the goalkeeping department over the past year, with Giorgi Mamardashvili, Freddie Woodman and Armin Pecsi all arriving, whilst Caoimhin Kelleher has left permanently and Vitezslav Jaros joined Ajax on loan.

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The biggest move of all might still be to come, with Fabrizio Romano reporting that Alisson Becker could be ‘tempted’ by a prospective contract offer from Juventus, who are increasingly keen on signing the Reds’ number 1 this summer.

Liverpool have four-man goalkeeper shortlist

According to Graeme Bailey for TEAMtalk (and via X), Liverpool are ‘actively assessing’ their goalkeeping options ahead of the upcoming transfer window, with four candidates believed to be on their shortlist.

Three of those are currently playing in the Premier League – Bart Verbruggen, Robin Roefs and James Trafford – while Porto netminder Diogo Costa has ‘firmly re-emerged’ as an option for the Reds. The latter is understood to have a release clause of £52m in his contract, which runs to 2030.

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Do Liverpool actually need to sign a goalkeeper this summer?

Whether or not Liverpool enter the market for a goalkeeper this summer could be contingent on what happens with Alisson’s future. If the Brazilian stays put at Anfield, then there shouldn’t be any need to bring in a positional alternative during the off-season.

Even if he does move to Juventus, the Reds already have his intended long-term successor in place in Mamardashvili, and Woodman showed in the weekend win over Crystal Palace that he can absolutely be trusted.

In our view, there are other parts of the squad which are in far greater need of addressing over the summer – especially an elite winger to replace Mo Salah – but let’s nonetheless take a look at the four goalkeepers who are reportedly in Richard Hughes’ sights.

Of that quartet, Costa’s numbers stand out immediately in terms of having the best concession-to-minutes ratio, along with the highest rate of clean sheets, albeit with the caveat that he’s playing in a weaker domestic league than the other three rumoured candidates.

The 26-year-old has almost 250 senior games for Porto under his belt, 49 of which have come in European competition (Transfermarkt), so he has the high-level experience to go along with his impressive statistics from this season.

The hope is that Alisson stays and Liverpool don’t need to enter the market for a goalkeeper, but if they do, we can see why the Portuguese stopper would be in their sights.