Liverpool have made contact with Ligue 1 Champions Monaco about a possible deal for French midfielder Thomas Lemar. The Daily Star carries a report from the Times that claims we are in the running for the 21-year-old’s signature and have competition from a couple of other Premier League sides.

Lemar was one of the standout players for the surprise package from France and the utility man can play on either side of the attack and can play as an attacking midfielder too. It is for this reason that Tottenham and Arsenal are interested in the 21-year-old who scored 14 goals and provided 14 assists in all competitions for Monaco last season.

The report also claims that Arsenal made a bid for Lemar but the £30m seems too little too less for the champions of France and has been rejected.

We haven’t actually bid for the 21-year-old though, we have only contacted Monaco about the availability of the star. It will be tough to prise him away from the side as they have guaranteed Champions League football and moving before a World Cup year is always a big risk for anyone.

Where the link doesn’t really hold much is the fact that we already brought in Mohamed Salah a few days ago. The Egyptian should be one of the players who would start out wide for us next season and that would mean a spot on the bench for Lemar, irrespective of the number of games we play in Europe too.

We have more pressing concerns regarding the left-back slot and the centre-back role too. Lemar isn’t the solution to either of those problems and frankly, we need someone who can take over from James Milner in defence next season. It would be a huge blow to our hopes of winning titles if we stick with Milner next season as the left-back.

Even if we do somehow sign Lemar before the start of the season, what we need is defensive backup rather than weapons for an already sharp attack.