OPINION
Liverpool have surely been dealt a blow in the race for Lille attacker Nicolas Pepe as he reportedly would prefer a move to Paris-St Germain.
Telefoot1 reported that the Reds, Manchester United, Arsenal, Atlético de Madrid, Bayern Munich, Inter Milan were all the hunt for the 24-year-old winger, with PSG also paying attention to his situation in case Neymar leaves.
The French outlet claims that PSG are against parting company with the Brazilian attacker as it stands, but that could change and led them to consider the option of Pepe more seriously.
When you consider that Neymar could be on the move if Spanish newspaper Mundo Deportivo are to be believed, as they claim he has told PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi in a text message that he wants out, then PSG could soon fully focus on signing Pepe.
This would surely be a setback for the Reds and likely cause them to lose the race for the Lille attacker based on the latest report by Le10Sport.
Le10Sport claim that Pepe’s preference would be to join PSG as he has dreams of playing for the French giants, and they state he is hoping they will make a move for him in the coming days or weeks.
Given that the Reds would find it hard to beat PSG to Pepe, as how can you convince a player to turn his back on a dream, this report doesn’t spell good news for them.
Liverpool could do with adding the winger to their squad as he would boost their current attacking options when you consider how prolific he is.
Pepe scored 23 goals and assisted 12 in his 41 outings for Lille in his 2018/19 campaign and was directly involved with a whopping 48% of the goals they scored in Ligue 1. (Source: Transfermarkt)
The winger isn’t scared to have a shot at goal, he averaged 3.1 shots per games in his 18/19 season and was dubbed Man of the Match an impressive 13 times out of his 37 league outings by WhoScored; so that shows how he can be a match-winning player.
However, while it would be fantastic to see him light up Anfield based on this latest update, it’s hard not to envision him pulling on a PSG shirt in the near future.
