As Liverpool played PSV in the Champions League, Johan Bakayoko definitely passed a transfer audition. Plenty of Premier League clubs have looked at the 21-year-old winger in recent months and many would have been impressed.

Bakayoko was playing against a makeshift Liverpool defense and a rotated team, but he gave Kostas Tsimikas some problems with his direct dribbling and took his first-half goal very well. There is, clearly, a talented player in there to be further unlocked, which is reflected in his price tag of around $52m (£42m/€50m).

In terms of Liverpool, Bakayoko would need to go up another level in terms of goalscoring to be someone worth signing (and the Reds hope to still be well-stocked down the right flank next year by pinning Mohamed Salah down to a new contract). But the man himself has no doubts that he can play for a club of that size.

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"I definitely think that I can join Liverpool," Bakayoko said this week. "We can be happy that we won against big names, but they didn’t come with the strongest team either. It’s a shame that they didn’t come with the strongest team.

"I'm in a good place. I feel the confidence of the entire club. As long as that is there, I feel good, whether I play well or badly. I would not make such a move to Saudi Arabia now, no. I would not do it."

Bakayoko scored 14 goals and assisted another 14 last season and has netted eight so far in this one. Brentford is among the teams in England to have considered making a bid for his services.

"I know people sometimes question this because they haven’t seen us doing a lot in the transfer market in the summer and now in the winter as well," Arne Slot said on transfers this week. "There’s a reason for that — because we’re happy with the squad. But I do know we’re definitely working on strengthening in the summer."

Liverpool.com says: While Bakayoko could become Liverpool level in the future, he still has more developing to do. He is a long way off being ready to replace Salah when the time comes, which hopefully, of course, should be a while off needing to happen anyway.