Liverpool and Chelsea have been told that they will need to pay £60million to sign Dusan Vlahovic as Fiorentina are under no pressure to sell, Anfield Central has learned.
The striker scored 21 Serie A goals for Fiorentina this season and interest in signing him has spiked around Europe, with Liverpool and Chelsea very interested while Juventus are also understood to be pushing for his signature.
After Alvaro Morate scored half the goals the Serbian did, Juve are in talks with his agent as well as Fiorentina but we’re told that they would prefer to sell to a club outside of Italy to avoid strengthening Massimiliano Allegri’s team.
Juventus are unwilling to spend so much, however, and that could give Liverpool the chance to steal in and make their move for Vlahovic. While he is young and has huge potential, the risk of spending £60m to secure his signature is giving the Reds pause.
Unless Liverpool could agree to pay the fee with a favourable payment structure, the Reds will not pursue a deal to sign Vlahovic.
While a player like Erling Haaland started his career at RB Salzburg in a division that is considered to be second rate, he was plundering goals in the Champions League as well which is where concerns overpaying so much for Vlahovic stem from.
Serie A is a competitive league and some terrific players have emerged from Italy but there is no guarantee that Liverpool will get a return on their money and whether or not he could replicate his 21 Serie A goals in the Premier League is unclear.
It is promising, however, that Vlahovic scored so many goals for a team that finished just 7 points above the relegation zone as this indicates that he doesn’t need world-class talent around him to succeed.
At Anfield, he would get service of very high quality regularly and would play alongside proven world-class talents like Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah.
