Liverpool is expected to conduct some transfer business this summer, with Arne Slot still yet to really put his stamp on the squad. But while Dean Huijsen will certainly be on the radar of sporting director Richard Hughes, any deal could depend on sales at Anfield.
This might appear somewhat alarming at first glance. After all, FSG will be feeling the benefit of returning to the Champions League, not to mention a full season of gate receipts from an expanded Anfield.
And after Federico Chiesa was the only arrival last summer (albeit with a deal agreed in advance for Giorgi Mamardashvili), Liverpool has a right to expect significant business regardless of outgoings. This should be the transfer window where Hughes really gets stuck into shaping what Slot’s team is going to look like over the next few years.
Even so, according to David Ornstein of The Athletic, any move for Huijsen may well be contingent on sales. But it is not primarily for budgetary reasons — the journalist has cast doubt on whether Liverpool will be prioritizing the position at all unless another center-back departs.
Courted by clubs around the world, including Chelsea, Newcastle, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, Huijsen is presumably likely to want to arrive as a starter wherever he goes next. So perhaps Ornstein has a point about a “space” needing to open up for the defender, in the sense that he would struggle to unseat either Virgil van Dijk or Ibrahima Konate, and may therefore prefer other destinations for his next step.
Liverpool may also be reluctant to meet the $64m (£50m) release clause in order to acquire a player who would initially come in as back-up. While the transfer budget should be healthy this summer, it will not be bottomless, and Slot may prefer to invest in players who will immediately improve the first XI.
Having said that, the future of at least one Liverpool center-back is certainly in doubt. Van Dijk’s contract is up in the summer, and Hughes would be able to make a pretty compelling pitch to Huijsen to take over from the club captain.
(Image: Robin Jones – AFC Bournemouth/AFC Bournemouth via Getty Images)
Should Liverpool solidify any interest, then Hughes will be uniquely well-placed to try and broker a deal. He arrived from Bournemouth last summer, and Ornstein says that both he and other members of Liverpool’s recruitment team have links to the south-coast club.
The extent of Hughes’ efforts in bringing Huijsen to Bournemouth in the first place are unclear, given that the defender only arrived at the start of the season. But it’s entirely plausible that the sporting director was involved in laying the groundwork before he made the move to Liverpool.
Regardless, the report says that Hughes “will know Huijsen particularly well”, which cannot hurt. It shunts the emphasis firmly back on the question of whether Liverpool will decide to go all-in for him.
Release clauses have been a popular mechanism for Liverpool in recent seasons, enabling shrewd deals for Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai. But we’re still yet to really see Hughes’ favored modus operandi.
He talked a lot about “opportunism” last summer. Whether Chiesa’s relative lack of impact has altered his opinion on what constitutes a good opportunity at a club of Liverpool’s size, time will tell.
Given the quality of the squad Jurgen Klopp left behind, it will generally take significant investment to genuinely improve it. Without managing to unearth a true hidden gem, Hughes cannot strengthen the team on a shoestring budget.
But a raid on his old club for Huijsen does genuinely look like a chance to do a good piece of business at a reasonable price. If Liverpool decides it is in the market for a center-back, then he should certainly be on the phone to a few old colleagues.
