Signing contract: Fabrizio Romano drops afternoon transfer update as Liverpool prep £21m deal | OneFootball

Liverpool have officially missed out on the signing of reported target Oumar Solet.

Fabrizio Romano confirmed the RB Salzburg defender’s move to Udinese on X (formerly Twitter), with the footballer joining as a free agent.

The Merseysiders were understood to have been scouting the 6’3 French defender for a long period of time. Evidently, of course, it seems Arne Slot’s side wasn’t prepared to compete for the 24-year-old’s signature.

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Have Liverpool missed out on Solet?

(Photo by Marco Luzzani/Getty Images)

We’ve discussed Solet’s injury proneness in some depth previously, which we can only assume is part of the reason why Liverpool chose not to pursue his signature after the summer transfer window.

The former RB Salzburg footballer has missed 39 fixtures in his last four seasons – a figure that will understandably have raised some eyebrows in our recruitment department.

Still, we can’t help but feel that Richard Hughes and Co. have taken a big risk in not securing defensive reinforcements for the 2024/25 season.

Things are, admittedly, panning out quite well on the injury front as far as the backline is concerned. However, the lack of a direct backup option to Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate’s chequered injury history should hopefully mean that this gap in the squad is filled by the club in the January transfer window.

Liverpool could sign a forward in January

Recent reports now claim that we could instead look to strengthen our forward line in the January transfer window, despite the arrival of Federico Chiesa this summer.

Claims coming out of Italy suggest Liverpool would be happy to snap up Ligue 1 attacker Jonathan David in January for as little as £20.8m, should an opportunity present itself.

There’s certainly a likelihood that an interested party will make an attempt to sign the Lille star in the next window given his current terms are set to expire in 2025.