Double $107m transfer could make Liverpool plan next season clear amid Man City reality

On the very same day that Jörg Schmadtke was appointed as the club’s sporting director, two fresh Liverpool midfield links emerged.

The first centered around Nice star Khéphren Thuram, with L’Équipe reporting that the Reds are ‘pushing’ for a deal for the $64m (£52m/€61m) rated midfielder.

And the second involved Manu Koné, Thuram’s fellow Frenchman at Borussia Mönchengladbach, who features on the club’s ‘list of targets’ as per Fabrizio Romano/The Guardian and has been rated at around $43m (£34m/€40m) via Bild.

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Thuram, who joined Nice from Monaco back in 2019, only turned 22 in March. He’s made 114 top-flight appearances in France, playing the equivalent of 72-and-a-half full matches, but has only registered one senior appearance for his country.

Unlike Koné, he does have experience in European competition, with half of his 20 outings coming in the Europa Conference League during Nice’s run to the quarterfinals this season. His Champions League career to date spans just 44 minutes across two substitute appearances at Monaco.

Koné is even younger than his compatriot, having only celebrated his 22nd birthday around two weeks ago. He’s made fewer appearances than Thuram (71), but almost always completed the full match (67 full matches), whether that’s in Ligue 1 with Toulouse or the Bundesliga with Gladbach.

While a senior France cap is certainly in the pipeline, he’s joined Thuram in the squad for this summer’s under-21 Euros for now.

They are unquestionably two of the top midfield prospects in Europe, but you still get the sense, based on their volume of football to date, that they would be seen as long-term projects at Liverpool.

And so, the links leave you wondering about the club’s timeline.

Does the club genuinely believe it can return to Premier League title contention next season, and will that be its sole motivation as it conducts its summer business? After all, it will want to maximize the remaining years of Jürgen Klopp and his winning core, with Alisson, Virgil van Dijk, Andy Robertson, Fabinho, Thiago and Mohamed Salah all aged between 29 and 32.

It was originally suggested by Goal’s Neil Jones (speaking to The Redmen TV) that the club would place a heavy emphasis on ‘Premier League readiness’ in its dealings, but while players like Alexis Mac Allister (who may arrive regardless), Mason Mount, Moisés Caicedo and Matheus Nunes all fit that bill, Thuram and Koné may need more time to make an impact.

Indeed, the links with the France under-21 duo might suggest that Liverpool is prepared to take a longer route back to the top. Maybe the club’s primary goal next season isn’t to win the league, an almighty task given the gap to Manchester City, the greatest Premier League team of all time. Instead, the Reds could look to simply return to the top four and rebuild (to use that oft-repeated term) from there.

The idea may be to put the long-term building blocks in place for success by recruiting players with world-class potential, rather than immediate world-class ability. They could truly reach their peak in the next great Liverpool side.

The plan will only become clear as the transfer window unfolds, and we see how serious Liverpool is about particular targets.

But signing Koné and Thuram, the players on everybody’s lips right now, would certainly point to a degree of patience.