Swap Deal Klaxon: Lovren Plus Cash for Kalidou Koulibaly

The rumor mongers just said “hold my beer.”

Yesterday, we reported on Liverpool’s unlikely move for Napoli star defender Kalidou Koulibaly, worth a reported €110-120 million. Today, the folks who make these things up are back, this time with a potential swap deal with Dejan Lovren! to sweeten the pot.

As we pointed out, a move for Koulibaly was already unlikely, especially for the fee that would likely be required to force Napoli into a sale. This swap deal rumor would seem to make the transfer rumor even more unlikely than it already was.

Swap deal rumors are, at the best of times, highly unlikely. This is especially true for high profile players, and more importantly their agents behind the scenes, who all things being equal would like the cut of two fees instead of one.

This particular swap deal rumor seems to come out of pure speculation, following the logic that 1) Liverpool are supposedly interested in Koulibaly, 2) Lovren has been rumored with a Serie A move, either to Napoli or AC Milan, 3) ... and 4) profit.

Makes perfect sense.

This summer has been particularly quiet on the transfer front across Europe, generally, and Liverpool, specifically. As such, the rumor mill is pumping out crazier and crazier stories in lieu of actual news.

As much as we’d love a Virgil van Dijk/Kalidou Koulibaly partnership playing ahead of Alisson Becker, one which probably wouldn’t concede in the league or Champions League until sometime in the 2022/23 season, this still seems like an unlikely outcome. Soz.

Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com