Forget Alex Scott, £76m mega talent is Liverpool's next superstar | OneFootball

Liverpool are currently linked with a move for Alex Scott. Forget that one - there's a bigger talent to sign.

There's a lot of talk around Alex Scott right now. There was anyway, but reports that he's rejected a new contract with Bournemouth has sent speculation into overdrive - and that's understandable.

Liverpool have naturally been linked. The future of Curtis Jones is up in the air, while we're not entirely sure what's going to happen with Alexis Mac Allister. Unlike Ryan Gravenberch and Dominik Szoboszai, the Argentine doesn't appear to be signing a new contract.

So will he be sold?

It all means Liverpool have to consider the midfield market this summer. It reportedly had them considering Scott, and we're written before that he'd undoubtedly be a star signing.

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After all, Scott worked and thrived under Andoni Iraola. The new Liverpool head coach knows how to get the most out of him and it's a natural fit.

However, it doesn't appear that the Reds lead the charge here. Sky Sports report that Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal are the frontrunners for the midfielder right now.

In fact, Chelsea just had a £64m bid rejected by Bournemouth, per the BBC. The Cherries say he's not for sale and it's going to take an incredible amount of money to convince them otherwise.

So we say give up. Scott is going to cost an enormous amount and the wages will be extortionate at this point given the competition. The value has quickly run out.

An alternative? Victor Froholdt. The Dane appears to be the next great midfielder, if his development goes to plan. Enough so that his reported £76m release clause really shouldn't be much of a problem.

Froholdt was so good in his debut campaign at FC Porto that the Portuguese champions feared a club will do something crazy and trigger that clause. And they're actually quite worried that someone will - they believe he's worth more.

He probably is, too. It's difficult to understate just how good Froholdt was in Portugal last season. We believe he was, relative to league, the fourth most impactful midfielder across the 2025/26 campaign.

Again, that's relative to league - we're including some obscure European leagues in that, as well as the major ones. But you can think of his overall impact/value as virtually on par with Declan Rice's.

Now, Rice obviously did it in the biggest league on the planet but doing so in Portugal is still a major achievement. The other kicker here is that Froholdt only turned 20 in January - what he's doing is extraordinary.

The best age comparison would be Warren Zaire-Emery at Paris Saint-Germain, though we feel Froholdt outperformed him (again, relative to league). Quite honestly, no one came close to the Dane's impact out of Zaire-Emery in that age bracket.

And while banging on about 'relative to league', it's important to remember that Zaire-Emery is currently behind two midfielders signed from the Portuguese top flight. It is a league where midfield output translates to a higher level and Froholdt is currently putting in the kind of work that earned Vitinha and Joao Neves their big-money moves.

What we're looking at here, then, is a £100m midfielder. There doesn't appear to be much question that Froholdt will be worth that soon. He may be already if not for the release clause.

If a club wants a midfielder, they should probably try to sign him. That means you, Liverpool.