VVD succession plan: Liverpool submit ‘concrete offer’ for ‘complete and dominant’ centre-back | OneFootball

A summary of Liverpool’s start to the summer transfer window may read like this: one signed, two incoming, potentially more to follow.

Jeremie Frimpong has already joined from Bayer Leverkusen, and a number of reliable reports indicate that he’ll soon be joined by Florian Wirtz and Milos Kerkez.

It’s not implausible that all three of those deals could be done by the middle of June, which’d leave Richard Hughes with two-and-a-half months to add further signings.

The aforementioned trio would all come to Liverpool as readymade first-team starters, although the Anfield hierarchy also seem to be engaging in some longer-term squad planning.

Liverpool submit transfer offer for Abdelhamid Aït Boudlal

According to Moroccan outlet Le360 Sport, the Reds have submitted a ‘concrete offer’ for Abdelhamid Aït Boudlal, a 19-year-old centre-back with Ligue 1 side Rennes.

The Premier League champions aren’t alone in their interest in the teenager, who’s reportedly met with representatives from Newcastle, while he’s also being monitored by Nice, Lille and two unnamed LaLiga clubs.

He still has three years remaining on his contract at Roazhon Park, although the Morocco underage starlet evidently isn’t short of options from which to choose.

Image via Le Talent

Aït Boudlal would be one for the future at Liverpool if the Reds sign him

If Liverpool are to sign Aït Boudlal this summer, it’d be with a view to him developing into a first-team player for the Reds rather than going straight into the fray, given that he’s still quite raw at senior level.

The 19-year-old has yet to play for Rennes’ first team and spent the second half of the 2024/25 season on loan at Amiens in the French second tier, where he made nine appearances (Transfermarkt).

He clearly isn’t ready to make an impact at a club of LFC’s stature just yet, but his performances at underage level and in his fledgling senior career suggest that, in time, he could become a viable long-term successor to Virgil van Dijk at the heart of our defence.

As detailed by Jacek Kulig of Football Talent Scout, Aït Boudlal is a ‘complete and dominant centre-back’ who’s already showing tendencies of being a ‘natural leader’ and who excels in terms of his athleticism and his reading of the game.

If Liverpool strike a deal for him in this summer’s transfer window, the likelihood is that he’d be loaned out to  a club in the Championship or one of Europe’s foremost top-tier leagues in order to gain vital first-team exposure.

At present it appears that Newcastle are in pole position to sign him if he were to leave Rennes, but considering the pulling power which has seen the Reds land Frimpong and possibly adding Wirtz and Kerkez soon, don’t rule out another potential masterclass from Hughes with the Moroccan defender!