Despite already being well-stocked in the middle of the park, Jürgen Klopp is apparently a big fan of the young Spaniard, who was named player of the tournament for La Rojita as they won the UEFA European Under-21 Championship this summer.
Unfortuately, however, The Independent report that, “The Reds look set to miss out on Real Madrid midfielder Dani Ceballos,with Tottenham now in pole position to secure the 22-year-old’s signature.
“Ceballos is keen to leave the Bernabeu to play more regular football and has attracted plenty of interest from the Premier League with Arsenal also in the running.
“One report in Spain suggests Real Madrid would be happy to sell Ceballos for around £50m but would insist on a buy-back clause of around £70m just in case he should fulfil his potential.”
Now, it seems this information has been ventriloquised from The Mirror who earlier suggested that it was the Spanish outlet, Marca, who had namechecked both Liverpool and a fee of £45 million.
Sevilla-born Ceballos returned to the city this season to join Real Betis on loan from Real – in 23 league appearances he scored three goals playing predominantly in a central midfield position.
Of course, goals alone are not always an accurate metric for assessing the efficacy of a player; his incisive passing range, desire to get the ball forward, plus his lethal technical ability and ambitious nature make him a very handy player indeed. It’s part of the reason why Madrid are so keen to insert this buy-back clause.
It remains to be seen what will happen with this transfer but if reports are to believed then Spurs are in the ascendancy in terms of negotiating; AS, too, have reported that they are in pole position to secure the signing of Ceballos, though, interesting, only a loan basis it seems.
In any case, Klopp would do well to be wary of that buy-back clause, which could leave a cloud of expectancy hanging over Ceballos.