Liverpool’s top transfer target Naby Keita has a £48million release clause in his contract, claims BBC Sport.

BBC’s chief sport writer, Phil McNulty, revealed in a report that the RB Leipzig midfielder has a release clause in his contract that Liverpool can trigger in the summer of 2018, in order to capture his signing.

We have been chasing the 22-year old midfielder for months now, but the German outfit have no interest in losing their most prized asset anytime soon.

Keita joined RB Leipzig only in the last summer, from Leipzig’s sister club RB Salzburg of Austria. And the Guinea international did not take long to make himself an integral part of the club. Leipzig took the whole footballing fraternity by surprise as they finished second in the Bundesliga, behind champions Bayern Munich.

It wouldn’t be an overstatement to say that Keita was at the heart of it all. The 22-year old finished with 8 goals and 8 assists from 31 league games, which are exceptional returns considering that he had to play as a holding midfielder on many occasions.

Our manager Jurgen Klopp is supposedly a huge admirer of the midfielder and it was reported earlier this week that we were willing to bid as high as £70million to snap him up from Leipzig in the summer window.

Not very long after, ESPN and The Times’ columnist revealed on Twitter that the club had an “agreement in principle” with Keita regarding his contract length and wages. But with no deal struck with RB Leipzig, all this wouldn’t matter.

However, this latest revelation about a release clause in his contract does provide Liverpool with an advantage as the club could try and negotiate a possible transfer this summer.

There are no questions that a player of Keita’s quality would be a huge asset for us in the coming seasons and the thought of watching a midfield trio of Keita, Gini Wijnaldum/Adam Lallana and Jordan Henderson is surely a mouth-watering prospect as a fan.

Hopefully we can get the deal done and Keita is one of ours soon!