Liverpool set to face Chelsea battle for Serie A star despite £600m outlay

Chelsea have emerged as a candidate to sign Liverpool target Nicolo Barella

As per 90min (h/t Liverpool Echo), Chelsea are keen on signing Inter Milan midfielder and Liverpool target Nicolo Barella despite spending big last season.

The Blues spent around £600m in the two transfer windows of last season, buying loads of players and bloating their squad. Now, they are busy selling the players to balance the books and avoid FFP regulations being put on them. Saudi clubs buying their players for big money could help them

in that regard.

Barella has been a transfer target for Liverpool for some time, while Newcastle United were also interested in getting the Italian international.

The Mirror revealed that Inter could demand as much as £68m for their star player. While that is not crazy money, especially for a special player like Barella, it is a lot for a club like Liverpool that runs on a shoestring budget.

Irrespective of whether the Reds are in the Champions League or not, they do not spend big on a player unless the player sale is going at a good rate.

So, despite the fact that Barella could be a great addition to the Liverpool squad under Jurgen Klopp

, it is hard to think that the club’s owners will fork out £68m to sign him.

Can Klopp and Jorg Schmadtke work the magic and bring that price down to less than £60m? We can only hope and dream.

The other danger is Chelsea potentially signing the player this summer. If that happens, it would be disastrous for the Reds.

More Liverpool News

• Liverpool eye Boca Juniors midfielder Alan Varela
• Jose Enrique tells Jurgen Klopp to sign Frenkie de Jong from Barcelona
• Former Liverpool man Don Hutchinson urges the Reds to buy Manchester City’s Kyle Walker

Barella is good enough to improve any team in Europe. So, let’s not pretend that if Liverpool leave the door open for others to sign him, they will not get better because of his presence in the team.