Liverpool could beat Man Utd to $28m transfer Arne Slot already made exciting prediction about

Liverpool could be in for a busy summer. With Jürgen Klopp leaving, Michael Edwards and Richard Hughes have already been lined up for important roles behind the scenes, but there will be more alterations: as it stands, Arne Slot hasn't been officially unveiled.

There will be work to be done in the transfer market too. A new center-back is a must while Liverpool would benefit from signing another attacking player to further spread the load and ease the burden on the existing options.

Meanwhile, Feyenoord defensive midfielder Mats Wieffer is among the players on the Reds' radar, according to HITC. He is valued at $28m (£22m/€26m), the Spanish outlet SPORT has reported, with Barcelona also keen, which would be well within the Liverpool budget.

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Manchester United, Tottenham and Newcastle are also supposedly keen on the player, but having already worked with Slot, Liverpool could have an advantage in any transfer race. The incoming head coach at Anfield is a massive fan of him.

"Mats has made a mega leap in terms of development. I can really enjoy that," Slot told Voetbal International recently. "So big that, if he does that again, he will become the best player in the world. That is of course unrealistic, for any footballer. But Mats can get even better."

What would Liverpool be getting should it sign Wieffer? Well, the Reds will not make a move for him based purely on the existing link to Slot and the fact that the pair know each other well.

But the 24-year-old is at the right age to take another step forward in his career, and he has already shown a great deal of promise. Wieffer wins a huge volume of duels both in the air and on the ground and his distribution is excellent. Were it not for a poorly-timed injury, he would be heading to the summer's European Championship with the Netherlands.

Wataru Endō has far exceeded expectations at Liverpool this season but he is 32 next season. The number of minutes that he has played this year has ultimately told in the last few weeks when he (like many of his teammates, in fairness) has looked jaded. And as Liverpool found last summer, there are not loads of number six options available to purchase. That is why Endō was brought in as something of a stop-gap.

Given he 'only' plays in the Eredivisie at the moment and hasn't already done it at the very elite level of the game, Wieffer would still be a gamble, albeit of a different kind. If Liverpool is going to get another midfielder in this summer, though, a defensively-minded one, given the other options that the Reds already have, certainly makes the most sense.