David Ornstein confirms "box-office" forward WILL join Liverpool | OneFootball

Liverpool and Leverkusen talks head for a conclusion

Meanwhile, the Wirtz deal threatens becoming a saga. With Liverpool’s interest long declared, fans might have been hoping for a swift resolution. However, with Bayer Leverkusen holding out for a package worth £126m, this one is dragging out.

Fabrizio Romano declared on Tuesday that a verbal accord had been struck for the 22-year-old but it’s since transpired that the deal isn’t as far along as the Italian claimed.

Nonetheless, according to David Ornstein of the Athletic, there is little prospect of the move falling through at this stage.

With Bayern Munich and Manchester City firmly out of the race for Wirtz, Liverpool will have plenty of time to conclude the deal and make an offer which is acceptable to Leverkusen.

"Box-office" Wirtz will join Liverpool

"My understanding is that all this is onto now is really the structure of the deal, the add-ons, bonuses, the payment terms, and a huge portion, around £100m, is going to be guaranteed, and that's not insignificant,” he explained to the Athletic FC podcast.

“Then the add-ons after that have still got to complete the whole package. But, there are already reports of agreements being reached. The word coming out of all the parties involved was it's not quite there, but no suggestion that this isn't going to happen.

“To the contrary, every suggestion that it is, and they're going through these last hurdles and then as and when they can, presumably, they'll get him over for a medical and complete what would be a box office signing."

Liverpool fans might be frustrated that this transfer wasn’t completed during the mini-transfer period ahead of the FIFA Club World Cup.

But they can rest easy in the knowledge that one day soon we will be able to confirm Florian Wirtz as Liverpool’s new playmaker.