Martin Zubimendi looked to be an ideal fit for Liverpool. And yet, after a few days of deliberation, the 25-year-old European Championship winner has decided that he doesn't want to leave Real Sociedad.
When the news first broke that Liverpool was set to move for a number six, FC Porto's Alan Varela emerged as a name on fans' lips, alongside Zubimendi. Another player, though, should be in the conversation given the changes that it appears Arne Slot is implementing at Anfield.
In the past, links to Barcelona midfielder Frenkie de Jong, signed for $82m (£65m/€75m) from Ajax in 2019, have gone nowhere. The Dutchman himself has never been too keen to leave the Camp Nou side and that might well still be the case — but profile-wise, he could be ideal.
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The early evidence that Liverpool has displayed in pre-season so far is that Slot wants Liverpool to be daring when building out from the back, enticing the opposition into a press. The Reds will be playing out from the back much more patiently and trying to tempt their opposite numbers into breaking their shape — think Brighton at its peak under Roberto de Zerbi.
Curtis Jones summed it up nicely during the pre-season trip to the USA. " I feel this is more me," he outlined during a press conference. "I can get on the ball more. I'm excited."
"We need to be comfortable on the ball and be calm in our build-up as a team," Jones continued. "We're not in a rush to attack. We need to break teams down and when we give the ball away we can press. In the past, it was a rush to get the ball back, a bit too direct, up and down, up and down. Now we want to have all the ball and completely kill a team."
Alongside Mac Allister in something closer to a midfield double pivot, De Jong would offer the quality in possession required to get Liverpool up the pitch. He can glide past defenders and has the skillset to be the archetypal number six in the progressive mold. He hasn't always shown that at Barcelona but there is a world-class player there to be unlocked.
Liverpool was linked extensively with De Jong in 2022. According to a report from Futbol Total at the time, the Reds were "ready" to offer an initial transfer fee of $69m (£54m/€63m) for his services, plus $8.8m (£6.9m/€8.0m) in add-ons. That was shortly after Manchester United had a bid worth slightly more accepted but that fell through and other similar claims in Spain emerged.
Closer to home, Tim Sherwood claimed to "know" that De Jong was offered to Liverpool in 2019. "There were a couple of players that were offered to Klopp," he told talkSPORT. The pundit claimed that it was a choice between De Jong and Fabinho and Klopp went with the latter because of his more aggressive manner of playing the role.
Now, though, regardless of whether there is any truth in that whatsoever, with Liverpool playing a slightly different style and needing a player more in the silky style, a move for De Jong would make considerably more sense. Ex-Feyenoord player Kaj Ramsteijn suggested it almost as soon as Slot was announced at Anfield, telling Voetbal Primeu: "Take De Jong with you! I would think that would be a nice club for him. I think Frenkie is so good that I really want to see him play for trophies."
Zubimendi has already turned Liverpool down because he didn't want to leave his current club and the Reds can't afford for that to happen again. De Jong, in that sense, might be tricky to get if he doesn't feel open to a move away from Barcelona.
That is, though, a good example of the kind of player that Liverpool should be looking at — and it would be wise to find a Zubimendi alternative. As Slot moves the Reds towards what Tyler Morton termed Total Football a couple of weeks ago, signing an Ajax graduate schooled at Barcelona would be the ideal transfer.
An original version of this story was first published on August 7. It has since been updated.
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