The chase for Europe’s most promising talent is certainly heating up as reports from Marca (h/t Liverpool Echo) state that we have bid £88 million for the 18-year-old French forward.

The Liverpool Echo carries the report and adds that Jurgen Klopp wants the highly rated forward at the club at any cost and this was the second bid which was rejected by the Ligue 1 Champions.

Mbappe has a number of clubs pursuing his signature and the rising star did score 26 goals in all games as he helped Monaco clinch the Ligue 1 title. The owner of the club, Dmitri Rybolovlev, wants Mbappe to become the most expensive player in the world and is holding out for a record deal.

However hard Klopp tries to bring the forward to the club, it is being reported that Monaco are in no hurry to sell their star, especially to Liverpool. Mbappe is more than happy staying at Monaco and is dreaming of a move to Real Madrid, sometime in the future.

Klopp has reportedly told Mbappe that he would be first-choice for us as the Frenchman wants to keep his place in the national side ahead of the World Cup next year.

We aren’t the only club looking to sign him up as Arsenal, Paris Saint-Germain and Mbappe’s preferred destination, Real Madrid are also interested in bringing the striker in.

Too much for a rising star

While Mbappe is talented, no doubt, spending £88 million would be a bit of a risk, given he has never played in England. Further, after signing Mohamed Salah, we need to concentrate on some of the other positions in the team such as the defence.

We don’t have a proper left-back as of yet and we will ship out Alberto Moreno sooner or later. Additionally, for the amount of money being touted for Mbappe, we could end up signing world class players from other teams.

The bid certainly is a little out of our character as well since we don’t go spending crazy sums for players that haven’t performed consistently. Salah, Sadio Mane and even Adam Lallana were players who have done well for a number of seasons and thus we decided to pay a premium and sign them up.

Mbappe would probably remain at Monaco this season too and if he does move at all, it would be to Real Madrid unless we splash something like £100 million on an 18-year-old.