Following what was a tumultuous end to the January transfer window for Liverpool as they scrambled around to find a central defender with all three senior centre-backs ruled out for the season, reports emerged of interest from the Reds right across Europe.
One of those bids was reportedly made for Juventus ace Merih Demiral, with a ‘monster offer’ of €57m (£50m) on the table from the desperate Premier League champions.
Whilst clearly tempting, the bid was rejected by the Serie A champions and they have since acted to close the proverbial drawbridge on future interest in their 22-year-old star.
Italian outlet Gazzetta Dello Sport has stated that the Old Lady are now indebted to keeping Demiral, seeing the Turkish youngster as the natural partner alongside Matthijs de Ligt in the future. In fact, the report stated that ‘Juve has raised the wall, it’s useless to climb’.
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Considering the shrewd and remarkably inexpensive deals Liverpool did pull off in the final hours of the window, reports claiming that a bid of roughly £50m was made for Demiral seem far farfetched.
Klopp may well venture back into the central defensive market in the summer, with Ozan Kabak essentially on a six-month loan deal, although it would seem that efforts to reignite interest in Demiral would fall on deaf ears.
Other targets such as Dayot Upamecano present far more economical and, most importantly, attainable options given his release clause.
