The Portuguese press are seemingly confident that Jackson Martinez is heading for the Premier League this summer, with O Jogo (via The Metro) and CM claiming that the Colombian striker is unlikely to return to Porto.
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O Jogo suggest that Liverpool are one of four Premier League clubs interested, while A Bola go one step further and suggest that the Reds are in fact the favourites, along with Arsenal, to land the 28-year-old. CM simply state that he’s definitely leaving.
J. Mendes, despite not being his agent, has been involved to find Jackson a new club. Man United, Arsenal, L’pool, CFC interested. [O Jogo]
— Jan Hagen (@PortuBall) May 28, 2015
Jackson’s’ agent, E. Pompeu, is in Porto to look at the offers they’ve received for his client. Arsenal/L’pool leading the race. [A Bola] — Jan Hagen (@PortuBall) May 28, 2015
Including AFC and LFC, Chelsea, Spurs, Man United and Wolfsburg are all keeping track of Jackson Martínez. [A Bola]
— Jan Hagen (@PortuBall) May 28, 2015
Seems like all the Port. papers are running a Jackson story today. CM say he won’t return to Porto, heedless of what they’re willing to pay. — Jan Hagen (@PortuBall) May 28, 2015
In common of all these stories[O Jogo, A Bola, CM] is Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea and Man United being listed up as interested in Jackson.
— Jan Hagen (@PortuBall) May 28, 2015
Martinez has one of the deadliest striking records of any forward in Europe – having scored 92 goals in 132 games for Porto since he joined them from Chiapas in 2012. He’s netted 32 of those over the last year, making the 2014-15 campaign his most prolific yet for the Champions League quarter-finalists.
Despite his goals, Porto missed out on the league title by three points to Benfica, and it now looks like Martinez could be willing to push for a move.
We’re in desperate need of some fresh inspiration up front, having struggled for goals all season long, and Martinez would certainly go down as one of the ‘marquee arrivals’ that Brendan Rodgers has promised us (via The Telegraph).
While we’ve also been linked with the likes of Charlie Austin, Danny Ings and Christian Benteke (via the Evening Standard), you can’t help but feel that we need a move such as this to really inspire some enthusiasm among the supporters.
The switch is, of course, far from a given, but hopefully our bosses will at least take some encouragement from this comprehensive set of signals – he’s available, and we should go for him while we have the chance!