Could Serbia and Benfica midfielder dynamo Nemanja Matic be Liverpool bound this January ... if reports in A Bola and O Jojo (translation required) are to be believed, then this could very well be the case.
The 25-year-old would certainly add steal to the midfield that’s been missing since the Alonso and Mascherano days and as much as I want to see Lucas succeed, with him in the starting XI I just don’t see the team as title contenders.
It’s been widely noted by fans, pundits and journalists that Liverpool's midfield is in need of work and adding a player the calibre of Matic would go a long way to helping this come to fruition.
The midfielder is valued around 30m (27m via transfermarkt) but A Bola is stating that Benfica manager Luís Filipe Vieira, told Benfica TV the player has a 50m euro buy-out-clause in his contract which seems very high for a defensive midfielder, but ultimately means Benfica don’t want him to leave.
It’s widely known that Benfica are a club in debt, to the sum of 450m euros (380m) (BBC article) and the possibility of selling one of their high value stars may be necessary to balance the books.
In the same A Bola article it also states that scouts from the Anfield outfit have been seen at Benfica games on more than one occasion.
Personally I would love to see the Serbian in the starting XI and in my view a bid of 30m would be justified if he helped the club climb back into title contention again.
Source: DSG
