That faint whining or rustling you hear in the distant is a Liverpool fan, whose soul will not rest until his/her club sign a replacement for Loris Karius. The German 'keeper dropped another bollock in a pre-season friendly against Tranmere Rovers last Tuesday, with Liverpool fans growing increasingly worried that Jurgen Klopp will stick by his compatriot for the season ahead.
Klopp's faith in his error-prone players is one of his biggest selling points to Liverpool's owners, and is evident in the renaissance of Dejan Lovren, restoring his confidence to such an extent that he now refers to himself as one of the best defenders in the world. (That he said this days before facing MBappe and Griezmann accentuates exactly that confidence).
Karius' future, however, looks completely untenable and rumours today suggest that Liverpool are trying to sign a notionally top-level replacement. Gazzetta Dello Sport report that Liverpool have submitted a €60 million bid for Roma's Allison Becker, who you may recognise as Brazil's No.1/the guy who conceded seven goals to Liverpool across two legs of a Champions League semi-final.
More likely, however, is that they don't sign him: the media closer to Liverpool are reporting that Klopp is going to use pre-season to give Danny Ward a chance to catapult himself from third choice to Liverpool's first choice. So brace yourselves for that, Liverpool fans.
Elsewhere, the club are on the verge of signing Xherdan Shaqiri from Stoke City for the now-bargain-basement price of £13 million.
Per James Pearce of the Liverpool Echo, the Swiss winger has cut short his holiday to fly to Liverpool for a medical ahead of a move.
Shaqiri cut short his holiday and flew into Merseyside last night. Medical is now underway. #LFC
— James Pearce (@JamesPearceLFC) July 13, 2018
The question that many of you will ask now is....can Shaqiri play in goal?
