Liverpool! Romeo Lavia! £171m! That’s a really massive number, isn’t it?

Liverpool are receiving transfer blows all over the place but Romeo Lavia is bound to move because of what happened 19 years ago…

Standing on the KloppAfter the ‘blow’ issued to Chelsea on Wednesday, they are dealing their own to the face of Liverpool on Thursday.

‘Jurgen Klopp faces imminent transfer blow on “real deal” Liverpool were urged to sign’ is the Mirror headline accompanying a story about the Blues making a breakthrough in their Moises Caicedo negotiations with Brighton.

It’s an ‘imminent transfer blow’, alright. After all, there is little worse than losing out on a player for whom you have not yet actually made a bid. Ouch.

It was Gary Neville of all people who urged Liverpool to sign the “real deal” this summer – but Jurgen Klopp is set to miss out on another top target.

Not ‘another top target’? It’s truly been a disastrous summer for Liverpool, who have only signed two excellent midfielders.

Jurgen Klopp has a very high search value so elsewhere, the Mirror pose ‘Four questions Jurgen Klopp still needs to answer before Liverpool’s season kicks off’. He’s only got until Sunday and he’s probably really quite busy but if he ‘needs to answer’ then he really must.

Who will partner Virgil van Dijk?

This one is easy to answer ‘before Liverpool’s season kicks off’ because he literally has to decide about two hours before the game. Are they all going to be this simple?

The role of Trent Alexander-Arnold?

This is a piece of p***. It’s right-back. But we’ll let Klopp ‘answer before Liverpool’s season kicks off’ with his starting line-up v Chelsea.

Will Romeo Lavia sign?

Oh, this is trickier. But Mediawatch suspects this is not a ‘question Jurgen Klopp still needs to answer before Liverpool’s season kicks off’; it’s a question that somebody needs to answer before 11pm on September 1, but that’s not quite as catchy.

How patient can Klopp be with Nunez?

Hmmmm. Not sure he has to answer this before Sunday. Actually, it would be really f***ing weird if he answered this before Sunday.

“So, Jurgen, how patient can you be with Darwin Nunez this season?”

“Moderately patient, I think. Next.”

There is no ‘next’, Jurgen; those are the four questions that you need to answer before 4.30pm on Sunday.

Klopping itJust when you think things cannot get worse for Liverpool – and we’re not talking about Chelsea moving for Romeo Lavia – the Liverpool Echo come along with yet another blow.

Liverpool transfer news LIVE – Romeo Lavia Chelsea bid, Benjamin Pavard setback, Fede Valverde offer

It’s quite the ‘setback’ when Manchester United are in talks to sign a player last linked with Liverpool in mid-June in stories emanating from Germany that were summarily dismissed by the club at the time.

What’s next for poor, put-upon Liverpool?

How big is your number in the window?Thankfully the Liverpool Echo are here with a take on the Romeo Lavia situation that stretches the bounds of all that should be acceptable even in the filthy world of football content in 2023.

Romeo Lavia transfer is inevitable after £171m Liverpool controversy

Join us in our first thought of ‘what the actual f***’? And then walk with us through a piece which reaches that headline figure by adding up some numbers entirely unconnected to Lavia to make A REALLY MASSIVE NUMBER. And we all know REALLY MASSIVE NUMBERS generate clicks.

They detail the bids from Liverpool and now from Chelsea for Lavia and suggest that his absence from the Saints’ first two games suggest that an exit is ‘inevitable’.

Of course, Liverpool have been in this situation themselves before, both as a buying and selling club. And it is perhaps that experience when in the Saints’ shoes which reiterates while a transfer is still likely this summer.

Perhaps. But we would argue that two Premier League clubs desperate for midfielders now bidding very close to the £50m asking price actually suggests a transfer is still likely this summer.

But that logic does not create headlines – and definitely does not create headlines including the number £171m – so the Echo are flying down their path. Join us and them…

It was on this day in 2004 where Michael Owen watched on from the substitutes’ bench as the Reds kicked off the Rafa Benitez era with a 2-1 victory away at Grazer AK. Three days later, a £12m transfer to Real Madrid was confirmed.

Fast forward to the summer of 2010 and Javier Mascherano was left out of the Liverpool side that lost 3-0 away at Man City on August 23 amid speculation about his future and a desire to join FC Barcelona. There were suggestions at the time that he had effectively gone on strike in a bid to force through a transfer, and by August 27, the Catalans had agreed a £17.25m fee with the Reds for the Argentina international.

And in the 2017/18 season, Barcelona came calling at Anfield again as they pursued a deal for Philippe Coutinho. The Brazilian would sit out the Reds’ six opening matches, including all their August outings, with a supposed back injury as he waited in hope of a move to Camp Nou.

While he was left disappointed in the summer, a club-record £142m switch to Barcelona was eventually completed in January 2018. But not before the playmaker had sat out matches against Burnley and Everton before a fee was agreed with the Catalans on January 6.

And if you add those three transfer fees together, you arrive at £171m! And ‘Romeo Lavia transfer is inevitable after £171m Liverpool controversy’, obviously.

So this transfer of a young Belgian midfielder to either Liverpool or Chelsea was set in motion 19 years ago this week. And if it wasn’t ‘inevitable’ then, it became so six years ago when Coutinho *checks notes* did not actually move that summer. But never mind that small detail because Romeo Lavia, Liverpool and £171m!