Frank de Boer keen on Mamadou Sakho but admits current price is too high

Frank de Boer has insisted Liverpool’s valuation of Mamadou Sakho is “much too expensive” for Crystal Palace although his club remain keen on bringing the France international back to Selhurst Park.

Liverpool want £30m for Sakho, who has been frozen out of the squad by the manager, Jürgen Klopp, since a breach of discipline last summer, but the Anfield club are believed to be willing to accept a deal inclusive of add-ons to achieve that figure before the transfer deadline at the end of August.

Sakho enjoyed a successful loan spell at Palace last season when he helped the team, then managed by Sam Allardyce, to pull clear of the relegation zone. The 27-year-old defender would prefer a return to Selhurst Park over a move to West Bromwich Albion, who are also interested in signing the former Paris Saint‑Germain player.

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West Ham United is another possible destination. Talks between Liverpool and Palace are expected to resume with 11 days to go before the transfer deadline and De Boer has admitted Sakho would enhance his squad.

The Palace manager said: “Everybody knows he had a major impact last season and, when he’s available for us, I think that is a quality injection for the club. It is not like this now because he is much too expensive for the club.”

The Palace chairman, Steve Parish, admitted on Sunday that he is hoping to add three new players to the squad before the end of the transfer window, although any new arrivals could be contingent on players leaving the club.

De Boer endured his second consecutive Premier League defeat as Palace manager on Saturday at Anfield, as Liverpool won 1-0 thanks to Sadio Mané’s second‑half goal, and the Dutch coach admitted it will take time for the team to adjust to his requirements.

“Of course everybody wants to win but I’m looking at the process of how we are developing as individual players and as a team,” De Boer said. “If I see progress, then I am satisfied. If I play at cards, I want to win and, coming into the games, I want to win, always, with the best result, with the respect to our opponents. We had our chance to win, or get a draw, but we leave empty-handed.”

Parish, who so far has spent £7.9m this summer on the Dutch defender Jairo Riedewald from Ajax, has also expressed his disbelief at the high cost of transfers in this window.

“What’s returned to football are the big-money owners, the win‑at‑all‑costs owners, almost bottomless pockets,” he said. “I’d love to see how it all fits with financial fair play, by the way, because I just can’t see how half of this fits with that because the revenue of the clubs hasn’t grown this year.

“I’m not accusing people of anything. I just don’t understand the numbers for some of the clubs that they’re spending, that are being quoted and how you can make that fit over a period with financial fair play.”