Liverpool prepared to pay £25m for Ozan Kabak

Liverpool will sign Ozan Kabak from Schalke 04 this summer for £18m upfront and a further £7m in bonuses if the Reds can offload unneeded talent before the October 5 deadline.

So far this summer, the Premier League champions have signed Konstantinos Tsimikas, Diogo Jota and the classy Thiago Alcantara for a combined £78.93m.

Sources close to Anfield Central claim that Liverpool are ready to make a final move for Kabak as soon as funds are generated by the departures of Harry Wilson, Nathaniel Philipps, Xherdan Shaqiri, Divock Origi and Rhian Brewster.

Joe Gomez and Joel Matip were both absent due to injury when Liverpool visited Chelsea on Sunday and Fabinho (7.4) was so impressive that he was awarded a higher match rating than Virgil van Dijk (6.4) by WhoScored.

Despite the Brazilian's brilliance, Jurgen Klopp is not happy that he has to play his best defensive midfielder out of position to accommodate for the injuries suffered by Gomez and Matip.

His disappointment is compounded by the fact that the two absentees are regular injury concerns which increases the likelihood of Fabinho needing to make an emergency appearance at centre half.

According to Transfermarkt, the two defenders missed a combined 585 days of football since the start of the 2016/17 season and that's not including the ACL injury that Gomez suffered which saw him out for 234 days.

The need to sign Kabak has been exposed just two games into the season but Liverpool have the chance to prevent their promising season being undermined by injuries by making their move for the Schalke star.

The Reds are prepared to pay £18m upfront and a further £7m in performance-based bonuses to sign Kabak if they can generate the necessary funds from sales this summer, with Nathaniel Philipps, Harry Wilson and Rhian Brewster most likely to leave.

The latter is wanted by a host of clubs with Sheffield United and Crystal Palace at the front of the queue. Despite their interest, Eagles chairman Steve Parish lashed out at Sky Sports for falsely reporting that they had agreed to pay Liverpool a total of £25m.

While Brewster to Palace for £25m might not yet be agreed, that transfer alone would be enough to fund a move for Kabak.

That's before Liverpool have even moved Wilson, Philipps, Shaqiri or Origi on.