Liverpool is making progress in its pursuit of Jeremie Frimpong, as the club prepares for life after Trent Alexander-Arnold. The Dutch international has emerged as one of the best right-sided players in the world in recent years, and he has a relatively modest release clause of $39 million in his Bayer Leverkusen contract.
The outcome of the Alexander-Arnold saga has stung a lot of Liverpool supporters, but the chance to replace him with another top-class operator undoubtedly softens the blow.
Signing Frimpong would also be a major signal of intent from the Reds, after Virgil van Dijk placed his faith in Liverpool to make the right recruitment decisions this summer.
Van Dijk was in the same boat as Alexander-Arnold a couple of months ago, in that his contract was also due to expire at the end of this season, but he demonstrated his loyalty as he put pen to paper on a two-year renewal last month.
Speaking after last weekend’s 2-2 draw with Arsenal, Van Dijk spoke of the need for the club to strengthen in the transfer market, despite the team having wrapped up the Premier League title with four games to spare this season.
“It has to be a big summer and I trust the club and the people who make the decisions to do the right thing,” he told reporters in the Anfield mixed zone. “As champions it is a very difficult task to remain champions but I feel with additions we can make that step up.
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“We can have a proper pre-season, we can work on the things the manager wants us to do in ball possession and without ball possession, a lot of hard work will be done.
“It’s something to look forward to, it’s very exciting and it’s an exciting time to be associated with Liverpool. Let’s see what happens but I fully trust the decision-makers to do the right things and let’s see what those right things are.”
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Frimpong, a former Manchester City youth player, is keen on a return to England this summer, and his arrival would ease any immediate pressure on Alexander-Arnold’s current understudy, Conor Bradley, to play 50 to 60 games next season.
Bradley has made great strides this season but it would be a big ask for him to step up as Liverpool’s first-choice right-back, and he has also suffered with injuries over the course of the campaign.
Bradley missed all of Liverpool’s games in December due to a hamstring injury, before a similar problem sidelined him for more than six weeks between February and April.
