Liverpool did make a late check on Chelsea right back Malo Gusto on Deadline Day, but the move never moved beyond the enquiry stage.<\/p>\n
According to Fabrice Hawkins, Liverpool looked into the possibility of taking Gusto on loan. Chelsea, however, were not prepared to let the French defender go unless the arrangement was permanent. That position effectively ended the conversation before it could develop.<\/p>\n
The club\u2019s valuation was another major barrier. Gusto had previously been priced at $100 million (\u00a375 million) when he was linked with a summer move to join former boss Enzo Maresca at Manchester City. Liverpool, after a summer in which they became the first team to surpass $540 million (\u00a3400 million) in net spend in a single transfer window, had already gone on to spend a further $291 million (\u00a3250 million) 12 months later. That level of outlay left them in a difficult position on the final day of the window.<\/p>\n
As a result, Liverpool were not willing, or not able, to match Chelsea\u2019s asking price, and their interest was limited to a season-long loan. Chelsea, who are known for considering many different deal structures, simply rejected the idea of a temporary exit for Gusto.<\/p>\n
The approach also reflected Liverpool\u2019s problems at right back. There remains strong belief that academy graduate Conor Bradley can develop into an elite full-back in the mould of Trent Alexander-Arnold, but the 23-year-old has been out since January with a serious knee injury and there is still no clear return date.<\/p>\n
Liverpool have also had Ronald Ara\u00fajo on loan from Barcelona, with the Uruguayan able to cover on the right side. Even so, he has struggled badly in recent years and is more naturally suited to central defence.<\/p>\n
With Frimpong struggling and Ara\u00fajo as the only obvious alternative, Liverpool have looked vulnerable defensively at the start of the season.<\/p>\n
Chelsea, for their part, were not forcing Gusto out. Playing in midfield is one possible solution to one of their current issues, with Mois\u00e9s Caicedo and Jordan Henderson injured. Lavia and captain Reece James are also options, although both carry extensive injury records.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Liverpool asked about Malo Gusto, but Chelsea\u2019s valuation and loan-only stance ended the chase.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18996,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,175],"tags":[180,182],"class_list":["post-18997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-liverpool","tag-player-news","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}