Liverpool Reject Bids for Moreno and Markovic

Despite being almost certain to leave Anfield this summer, Liverpool have reportedly rejected a bid from Italian side Napoli for fullback Alberto Moreno with the Serie A outfits opening gambit of £11mil deemed a bit too low by the Reds.

While all the transfer talk this week has mostly been around AS Roma winger Mohamed Salah completing his prolonged move to Merseyside, the Egyptian winger coming in hasn’t been the only story of note. While Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp will certainly be looking to strengthen his squad this summer, he’s also going to have the jettison some of the dead weight and the Spanish defender falls clearly into this category. Having started only two Premier League matches last season, Moreno is clearly out of favour at Anfield, but Napoli will clearly have to up their game if they want to bring him to the continent.

That, of course, seems a bit odd considering the club can’t be asking for that much more for the error prone fullback, but we’ll wait and see how this one progresses. Apparently that’s not the only bit of business they turned away last week with whispers of a £8mil bid coming in from Watford FC for Lazar Markovic also doing the rounds. The Serbian attacker, who has failed to make his mark on Merseyside since arriving in a big money move three years ago, has had loan spells with the likes of Fenerbahçe, Sporting CP and Hull City, but has failed recapture the kind of form that saw him attract the attentions of some of Europe’s best clubs when he was plying his trade with Portuguese side Benfica. Along with Moreno, he’s almost certain to hit the exit door this summer — though he doesn’t sound very happy about it.

“Liverpool spent money on me and I believe they should have believed more in my ability. Both Liverpool and the manager. I believed I should have played more than I did,” he told the Liverpool ECHO back in April while on loan with Hull City, playing under now Watford manager Marco Silva. “I got the chance to play more elsewhere. I have no problems with that,” mused the Serbian. “We don’t know what will happen yet, it depends on the Liverpool situation. I still have two years on my contract at Liverpool,” added Markovic. “We shall see. I enjoy playing in the Premier League and would like to stay in the Premier League.”