Liverpool transfer ‘target’ is Trent Alexander-Arnold fan as FSG ready to make $5.4m ‘guarantee’ – Liverpool.com

Welcome to the Liverpool.com daily Media Digest. From transfers to tweets, it can be hard to keep up with everything going on in the Anfield sphere. Credible, incredible and anything in between: we round it all up in one place here, taking a sideways look at the day’s media goings-on from around the world.

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Liverpool ‘target’ loves Alexander-Arnold

Right-back is a ‘fashionable’ position. That’s the verdict of one apparent Liverpool transfer target — times have changed a lot since the days of nobody wanting to grow up to be a Gary Neville.

A key driver of this change is Trent Alexander-Arnold. It’s no exaggeration to say he has helped revolutionize the position, going beyond even the hyper-attacking full-back mold of someone like Dani Alves and genuinely becoming his side’s playmaker-in-chief.

And it seems the Liverpool man has wide acknowledgment from his peers, even if he sometimes finds it harder to come by from the media — and indeed Gareth Southgate. His reputation has at the very least spread as far as Spain, where talented Real Valladolid teenager Iván Fresneda has name-checked him.

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Speaking to AS, Fresneda named three players to whom he looks up:

“It is a fashionable position that today is valued much more than before and there are real players. Achraf [Hakimi], Reece James and Alexander-Arnold are three of my favorites.”

That’s particularly notable as Liverpool is one of the clubs to be linked with a transfer for Fresneda. While he insists he is focused on Valladolid, a report from The Athletic in January revealed that a host of top clubs are tracking him, Liverpool among them.

Arsenal, Newcastle, Borussia Dortmund and Rennes are considered most likely to make a bid. Liverpool keeping no more than a watching brief can perhaps be explained by the promise of Calvin Ramsay and the returning Conor Bradley. But an exciting full-back who has been following Alexander-Arnold closely is definitely worth keeping an eye on — especially as Valladolid was reportedly open to a relatively cut-price $16m (£13m/€15m) deal in January.

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FSG to make ‘guarantee’

There has been a growing trickle of Liverpool transfer links to center-backs. Whether there is anything in any of the individual reports is open to interpretation, but the sum of their parts does seem to suggest that FSG is increasingly on the look-out for defensive reinforcements.

Any club in such a position come the summer is bound to be looking at Napoli’s Kim Min-jae, one of the breakout stars of the season. The Korean has been a rock at the back amid the Neapolitans’ runaway Serie A success and deep Champions League progression, and it has not been lost on suitors.

According to Italian journalist Ciro Venerato on Tg Sport, via CalcioNapoli24, Napoli has begun dialog with Kim’s camp to try and secure his future beyond the end of the season. However, Liverpool, Manchester United and PSG have shown ‘the most’ interest in the defender, and are seeking to stymie any negotiations between player and club.

Reportedly, FSG — along with the other two most serious suitors — are ready to ‘guarantee’ Kim $5.4m (£4.4m/€5m) net per season, double the basic offer on the table from Napoli. Liverpool would also be prepared to pay his release clause, believed to be no higher than $76m (£62m/€70m) but potentially as low as $54m (£44m/€50m).