Have Liverpool Really Enquired About Falcao?

Could Liverpool really pull off an audacious move for the star striker?

A few weeks ago we wrote that Liverpool had shown an interest in Falcao, with a view to take the player on loan initially for a fee of £9.95 million, and even make the move permanent in a years time by paying off the remaining fee to Monaco. Reports today claim that Liverpool have now made a more firm enquiry about Falcao and even attended the Emirates at the weekend to watch the Colombian striker.

Initially, the claim came from Mina Rzouki on Twitter that Real Madrid were not in the race for Falcao (as previously believed) and that Liverpool were ahead of Man City and were quietly confident of closing out on a deal for the player. The Metro (not your most reputable source for such gossip) then ran with the story but over the course of the day a number of quite respected press outlets and national newspapers have reiterated the story – something which you’d be surprised in them doing if there wasn’t a little more to it than merely whispers.

This afternoon, the Liverpool Echo followed up on these reports by indicating that – while only reports – it appears that Liverpool had made enquiries but were destined to lose out, as the player has his heart set on a move to Real Madrid.

So, some very conflicting reports from a number of sources and some quite reputable ones. Which raises the question: is there any truth to these rumours?

The simple answer is, probably not. Falcao is a top, top player and, at 28, is at his peak and while Liverpool have money to spend it is perhaps too early in the clubs’ re-emergence to expect to be able to sign players of this calibre.

However, given the fact that he moved to a super-rich club and has since seen the millions spent on he and a number of other players fail to bring success, he is seemingly quite keen to move on and City, Real and Liverpool would all prove to be much more attractive options (unless, of course, his wife has her heart set on a move to London..)

But while City and Real could easily out-bid Liverpool, City seem to have more than their fair-share of options up front and any move for the Colombian may require the club to shed one of Aguero, Negredo, Dzeko or Jovetic, particularly given Monaco’s proposed asking price.

On the other hand, Real Madrid have not only just signed Falcao’s club and international team-mate, James Rodriguez, but have seen Karim Benzema sign a new long-term contract in the past 24 hours meaning that, unless Madrid have another £40-50 million plus player to sell (Angel Di Maria?) to raise funds and meet the FFP restrictions, then they’re unlikely to have backing to make such a move. So while Falcao may ‘have his heart set’ on a move to Real, they may not be in a financial position to do anything about that, at present.

Of course, none of this means Liverpool will sign the player, or that they’re even remotely interested – these are nothing but reports. What it does mean is that the club are potentially in a position to offer the striker a more starring role at a Champions League club, than either of their purported rivals. Things can happen quickly in football though, and both City and Real have players that could raise ridiculous sums in transfer fees in on fell swoop, whereas the Reds are still working their way through the pot of money left over from selling Suarez.

Reports from the Telegraph this evening seem to suggest that Liverpool’s enquiries were as distant as 10 days ago, and that Real are firm favourites for the player. But as with any reports, if there isn’t anything solid to back it up, we’re all just left speculating.

From our point-of-view a deal for Falcao is unlikely but not impossible. There is nothing solid to suggest Liverpool have made definite enquiries but, if true, then it shows that the manager and FSG are finally looking at the right sort of targets that the club should be chasing at this stage.