Liverpool in contention for ENORMOUS £50m agreement | OneFootball

Liverpool linked with ludicrous £50m deal

Anfield Watch reported last week that Vinicius Jr is on Liverpool's radar, following his recent falling out with Xabi Alonso at Real Madrid. The 25-year-old Brazilian has opened the door to a departure.

In that report, Graeme Bailey said the Reds 'shouldn't be ruled out' of a move for him, although 'issues' regarding his contract were emphasised. We've now been given clarification on that.

Finance expert Stefan Borson spoke to Football Insider on the matter and said: "Is there a scenario where the teams [Man City, Man Utd and Liverpool] could construct a contract that competed with the contracts at Real Madrid? The answer would be yes for the usual suspects.

"But I think it's just extremely unlikely, just because of the scale of that sort of deal."

In that sense, the move isn't ruled out, but the concerns around getting an agreement with Vinicius are primarily finance-based. The world-class winger will have high salary expectations in a move.

The kind of transfer fee that would pry Vinicius away from Real Madrid hasn't been confirmed, although a £100m figure is likely, given how much his contemporaries have been sold for.

And so when his amortised fee is included in a per year amount, it becomes a sizeable operation.

Borson continued: "This sort of deal is one that kind of puts you offside if you're a Premier League club because on it's own it can be worth £50m a year, maybe more, No club can easily deal with £50m a year of additional salary cost. Then on top of that, there's the amortisation depending on what the transfer fee is. So, I think theoretically yes, in practice probably no."

In most cases, that would shut the door on Liverpool's interest, but Mohamed Salah's circumstances leave room for speculation. After all, the Egyptian will be out of contract in 2027 and he's currently earning £400,000 a year. That represents £20,800,000 a year, plus £5,200,000 in bonuses, making the outlay on him £26m a season. Once that's off the books, we'll have some breathing room.

Of course, the Brazilian plays on the left-wing, so a different Salah replacement would be required when the Premier League all-timer hangs up his boots, but the focus on the pitch might shift. It's entirely plausible that Vinicius could become the main man at Liverpool, once the Egyptian leaves.