Transfer News: Pep Lijnders and Liverpool keeping an eye on Porto star Vitinha
According to O Jogo via Sport Witness (h/t Mirror), Liverpool could be in to raid Porto yet again as assistant manager Pep Lijnders is said to be watching Porto star Vitinha very closely.
The Reds signed Luis Diaz from the Portuguese club back in January and they could be in for yet another player. The central midfielder has been setting the stage alight at Porto and Liverpool are said to be huge fans of the player.
The 22-year-old, who spent last year on loan at Wolves, is not new to the Premier League but the talented midfielder struggled to establish himself at Molineux. However, Vitinha has bounced back in spectacular fashion, establishing himself in Sergio Conceicao’s team this season.
The Portuguese playmaker who can play in central midfield and in a more attacking role can influence games from midfield and has chipped in with six goal contributions this season.
However, Liverpool are not alone in their interest with Bayern Munich and Lazio also said to be keen on the youngster. Vitinha apparently has a £33.3million release clause and it remains to be seen if the potential suitors are ready to pay that amount to take the Portuguese talent.
What next for Vitinha?
The Reds are not short of options in midfield, but some of them are injury-prone, such as Naby Keita and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, while others such as Jordan Henderson, Thiago Alcantara, James Milner are all in their 30s.
At 22, Vitinha comes at a very promising age for Jurgen Klopp and the German manager would be confident of being able to extract the best out of such a midfielder at Anfield, given that we can sign him in the near future.
However, if the loan move at Wolves is an example to go by, the Portuguese could struggle to adapt to English football. Training under a manager like Klopp could change this, though, with the German known to often get the best out of his players.
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Vitinha is a player with a lot of potential who comes at a very promising age. Whether his potential is realised is a completely different question. And that question would only be raised in the context of Liverpool if we manage to sign him in the first place.
Our most recent business with the Dragons includes selling them an out-of-favour Marko Grujic while bringing in the electric Luis Diaz. If we manage to sign another talented midfielder in Vitinha, we could have ourselves another talented Portuguese midfielder from Lisbon- just like we did more than a decade ago when we signed Raul Meireles from the same club.
