Steve McManaman says Liverpool should not pay £30 million for Adam Lallana
Former Liverpool midfielder Steve McManaman has revealed that he believes the Merseysiders’ should stick to their valuation of Adam Lallana and not pay over the odds for the Southampton captain.
The Reds have lodged two bids for the 26-year-old, but both have been rejected by the South Coast outfit, who are desperate to avoid their prize assets leaving St. Mary’s this summer.
An opening offer was refused, before manager Brendan Rodgers had yet another bid knocked back after he tabled a sum reported to be worth £25 million for Lallana, who is part of Roy Hodgson’s World Cup squad.
The midfielder has made his feelings known to Southampton that he wishes to leave the club, but with a sizeable 25% of any deal due to be paid to Lallana’s former club Bournemouth, the Saints are eager to negotiate a larger fee.
However, although the attacking midfielder has experienced a scintillating season, including nine Premier League goals, the fee is in danger of becoming inflated and McManaman is adamant his former club need to draw the line at some point.
“I think that you have to have a cut off point. Seemingly, from what I understand, Liverpool’s cutoff point is £25 million, that’s what’s been intimated, that £25 million is the last possible option they could go to and then they’ll look elsewhere,” he told Squawka.
“Let’s be honest, £25 million nowadays is a hell of a lot of money.When you are buying from other Premier League teams and you’re buying English talent, that seems to be the going rate.
“There’s talk of them looking at Xherdan Shaqiri who’s not been playing much at Bayern [Munich]. You can get different options, foreign options, unfortunately, from better teams abroad,” he insisted.
With Liverpool’s squad in need of significant strengthening ahead of their Champions League campaign next season, Lallana would undoubtedly be a welcome addition.
However, with Southampton well aware that they can drive the price higher due to the hype surrounding Lallana, Kop chief Rodgers may well find a better deal elsewhere on the continent considering the inflation that clubs are forced to endure when attempting to sign an Englishman.
Having missed out on key targets in January, including Mohamed Salah and Yevhen Konoplyanka, Rodgers will be keen not to make the same mistakes he did six months ago.