Liverpool will be on the market to add new central defenders to their team after adding Jeremy Flippon, Florian Wiltz and Milo Squerquez to the group.
Wirtz and Frimpong have already been confirmed as new signatures.
The Premier League champions will need to find another centre-back to compete for team locations as Jarrell Quansa is set to move on from Merseyside.
Fabrizio Romano reports that Bayer Leverkusen has agreed to the first £30 million deal to sign England U21 International starting this summer.
Quansah was Arne Slot’s third centre-back in the 2024/25 campaign, after Virgil Van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate. This means that the club will need to find another player to fill that slot.
Liverpool have already missed one centre-back they reportedly were interested in as Real Madrid rang Dean Huissen earlier this summer.
Why was it a blow to Liverpool that he missed Dean Huyssen?
It was reported in May that Liverpool was preparing to bid to sign Spanish International from Bournemouth, but Real Madrid signed him at the reported £50 million fee.
It was a blow to the Reds that missed the 20-year-old defender’s contract. Because he is a proven Premier League performer who was able to hit the ground running at Anfield, where he had already shown his quality in the Cherry division.
Huijsen started 26 of his 32 appearances for Bournemouth on top flights during the 2024/25 campaign, and his performance was impressive enough to win a £50 million move to the Bernabeu.
24/25 Premier League | Dean Huijsen P90 | Percentile Rank vs CBS |
---|---|---|
Progressive Pass | 4.89 | Top 15% |
Progressive Carry | 1.52 | Top 9% |
Intercept | 1.89 | Top 4% |
block | 1.48 | Top 31% |
clearance | 7.34 | Top 4% |
A duel won | 2.52 | Top 23% |
Statistics via FBREF |
As you can see in the table above, the Spanish Titan combined solid defensive work with solid defensive work, as shown by how highly ranked he was against positional peers.
This further highlights how much of a blow it was to miss a young centre-back.
However, the Reds are looking at a highly talented teenage central defender as a potential signature, so they could potentially acquire even greater talent than Fuizen.
Liverpool is watching the stars of Ajax
According to Athletic, the Premier League champions are primarily interested in a deal to sign Crystal Palace star Marc Guech to replace Quansah before the end of the summer transfer period.
However, the report argues that if the Eagles, who won this season’s FA Cup, quote his reasonable asking price, the Reds will only move forward in England International’s move.
Thus, the athletic added that Liverpool is looking at alternative options for Guehi, and Ajax Central defender Jorrel Hato emerged as a target for the club.
By Football Transfers, Ajax has evaluated centre-backs at a rate of around £43 million, and it has previously been reported that Premier League side Arsenal is also enthusiastic about the Dutch.
Slots should be pushing this summer to secure a deal for Liverpool to sign pigeons this summer.
Why the pigeons are greater talent than Guehe and Huyssen
The 19-year-old star’s progress with Ajax at a very young age suggests that he has great potential and could become the top centre-back of the future.
Hato played incredible 111 first team matches for the Dutch Giants, despite not turning 20 until March 2026. For reference, Huijsen only played 53 career games at age 20, but Guehi played only 26 games by age 19 and 71 games by age 20.
This suggests that the Dutch starlet is a greater talent at his age than Huygen and Guech. Because he played more than twice the game as the Spaniards and four times the game as the British of his age.
Hato also captained Ajax several times when he was only 17 and 18 years old. This suggests that at a very young age, as Guech, the captain of the palace, can bring leadership qualities.
24/25 season | Hato (eredivisie) | Guehi (Premier League) |
---|---|---|
exterior | 31 | 34 |
the goal | 2 | 3 |
assist | 6 | 2 |
Tackle + Intercept per game | 2.6 | 2.6 |
I dribbled the past with each game | 0.3 times | 0.5x |
Success rate for ground dueling | 51% | 63% |
Success rate for air duel | 55% | 54% |
Statistics via Sofascore |
As you can see in the table above, the 19-year-old starlet was five years younger than the Eagles star, but still fitted well with Guech at league level this season.
Hato, praised as “imprecise” by talent scout Jacek Kulig, also offers positioning flexibility as he plays more than 70 games as both centre-back and left-back.
Guehi has never played more than two games away from the centre-back role, and Huijsen has never played any positions other than centre-back in his career.
This means that Ajax Titan offers much more versatility for slots. This provides him with the ability to play at left back and the defensive and leadership qualities he can offer.
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Overall, Liverpool was able to land even greater talent than Guech and Huyssen because of the things pigeon already accomplished in his career at such a young age, and the quality he can offer here.