OPINION
Liverpool must be licking their lips over the thought that Crystal Palace are willing to pay £18million in order to sign attacker Divock Origi.
Spanish outlet EI Desmarque reported on Wednesday that the London club had submitted an £18million offer for the Reds’ forward, with Valencia also keen, but that the Merseyside giants wanted a fee in the region of £30million.
It was previously claimed by the Daily Mirror that the Reds were seeking a fee in the region of £26million and that was hard enough to believe.
While Origi has shown glimpses of his talent during his Anfield career, it’s hard to see how the club value him as being worth anywhere near between £26million to £30million.
In fact the Reds if anything should be snapping Palace’s hand off with them offering an eight-figure sum as it’s hard to believe there is a Premier League side willing to invest so much in a player that has struggled to regularly perform to the required standard in England.
The 23-year-old forward, who can also play as a winger, has managed to score 12 goals in 51 Premier League appearances while at the Reds and some of his performances are better off being deleted from history.
Origi never seems able to go on a consistent run of good form, which he proved during his roller-coaster loan spell at Wolfsburg last season, and that causes his value to be nowhere near as high as Palace are reportedly bidding him for.
Also the player’s pre-season has hardly seen him cover himself in glory either with his displays varying from lacklustre to just purely being disappointing.
The Reds attacker is also entering the final year of his £28,000-a-week contract (Source: Spotrac) at the club so if Palace pursued someone else and returned for him in January then his price tag would be even cheaper.
So given his contract scenario and his performances in recent campaigns, including pre-season, then the Reds must instantly accept Palace’s offer before they see sense.
This means that Origi needs to quickly pack his bags at the club and head to London as a deal needs to be wrapped up before Thursday at 5 in order for the Reds to rake in such a mouthwatering amount for him.
