Fabrizio Romano informs Liverpool of hefty potential price tag for 18-year-old transfer target

Liverpool FC’s pursuit of Antonio Silva will not come cheap as per Fabrizio Romano

According to The Express

, Liverpool FC and Manchester United will have to spend big bucks to land their Antonio Silva from SL Benfica. The 18-year-old centre-back broke through the Portuguese outfit’s first team this season and since then, has been performing exceedingly well even at the European level.

Just yesterday, Silva was one of Benfica’s goalscorers in their 4-3 win over Juventus in the UEFA Champions League. He has made 13 appearances across all competitions this season and can have a bright future if he could keep up the consistency.

Writing in his column for Caught Offside, Italian transfer guru Fabrizio Romano spoke about the North-West rivals’ interest in the player and a price of £70m-£78m Benfica will be enough to convince the Portuguese giants to sell.

Here is what Romano told CaughtOffside:

“Remember the name: Antonio Silva. He’s a top player for the future, of course he needs some time to improve his skills but Benfica are convinced he will be worth €80-90m in the future.”

“I’ve seen some reports of Liverpool and Manchester United looking at him. For sure, top clubs are following him but it’s important to say that there’s still nothing serious or concrete, as of now.”

Silva in Liverpool Red?

As is the case for the midfield, even the centre-backs at Liverpool are not on the younger side. Both of the Reds’ first-choice centre-backs in Virgil van Dijk and Joel Matip are 31. We have younger options in Joe Gomez and Ibrahima Konate, but adding more depth will not hurt the Reds’ cause.

However, Liverpool are not exactly the biggest spenders when it comes to the transfer market. They are willing to go big on players they like , for instance the deal worth potentially £85m last summer to sign Darwin Nunez from Benfica.

Forking out €80-€90m for a teenager who has not even played 50 league games so far seems like a stretch and it would certainly be a gamble if the Reds cough up this exorbitant amount for Silva. With that being said, taking no credit away, his performances have been absolutely top-notch this season so far.

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With Liverpool’s injury record though, even a five year old providing depth will be absolute gold as at times, the Reds have struggled to fill the bench in recent games as well. Nevertheless, we hope to see some quality signings hopefully as early as this January window.

Benfica have produced top-class talent in recent years, and much like Silva, Ruben Dias also developed at the Portuguese outfit as a centre-back before a big money move to the Premier League. Hopefully, the teenager emulates Dias, but at Liverpool.