🚨 EOTK Insider with Neil Jones: Lavia OR Thuram next? Why Newcastle DIDN'T come in for Szoboszlai, Liverpool's difficult signing, and much more!

Join Neil Jones for his weekly column with EOTK Insider, exploring all the latest and greatest transfer stories around Liverpool Football Club

[From left to right: Dominik Szoboszlai, Romeo Lavia and Joe Gomez]

Hello and welcome to my column with Empire of the Kop! You can read about all the latest updates around Liverpool Football Club and its forays into the transfer market right here, every week, with EOTK Insider. Thanks for giving this a read and let us know your thoughts in the comments!

Today’s top stories:

• Romeo Lavia potentially more likely to sign for Liverpool than Khephren Thuram?

• Who could Liverpool sell this summer?

• And further updates on Levi Colwill, Dominik Szoboszlai, Joe Gomez, and more!

Dominik Szoboszlai

First of all, I had no idea that there were reports of anything along that line [Liverpool paying for Dominik Szoboszlai via a third party], so you’ve completely caught me on the hop in terms of that one. The way I understand it, Liverpool have met the release clause; it’s a Liverpool signing, it’s a Liverpool player, it’s a Liverpool deal. Third parties are not an area football clubs should be getting involved in. It’s obviously an area that has been very controversial in the past. We’ve seen rules brought in to prevent that.

As far as I’m aware it’s Liverpool buying the player and it impacts Liverpool’s budget in this window - it’s a £60m signing. The key point with Szoboszlai and Alexis Mac Allister is that the release clause made that deal a lot easier to do. We’ve seen Manchester United negotiating over Mason Mount, Arsenal having to submit two or three bids for Declan Rice, Chelsea now in a situation where they’re trying to sign Moises Caicedo, and Manchester City with Josko Gvardiol. It’s a lot smoother when there’s a release clause in there, especially one with a timeframe on it so you can get it done by a certain date.