\n<\/p>\n
This article contains affiliate links. We may earn a small commission on items purchased through this article, but that does not affect our editorial judgement.<\/em><\/p>\n Liverpool are willing to battle other Premier League clubs for Sporting Lisbon\u2019s Goncalo Inacio, according to reports in the Portuguese media.<\/strong><\/p>\n Apitofinal.pl <\/em>claim that Chelsea have made the 24-year-old a \u201cpriority target\u201d but the Reds and Manchester United are \u201cprepared to rival\u201d the Blues for the player\u2019s signature.<\/p>\n Inacio is a left-footed centre-back, and that would suggest that Arne Slot\u2019s side are eyeing him as a potential long-term replacement for Virgil van Dijk.<\/p>\n The Portuguese international also has a \u20ac60m (\u00a352m) release clause, which would also make him a viable target in terms of cost.<\/p>\n Speaking after the Merseyside derby<\/strong>Ibrahima Konate all but confirmed that he will extend his stay at Anfield beyond the end of the season.<\/p>\n It means Liverpool will head into next season with five senior centre-backs, as things stand, including van Dijk, Joe Gomez, Giovanni Leoni and new addition Jeremy Jacquet.<\/p>\n Of course, that doesn\u2019t necessarily rule out a move for Inacio, but it makes it a lot less likely, with the club needing to prioritise strengthening other positions.<\/p>\n Buy a Liverpool home shirt from Fanatics here<\/p>\n Reports<\/strong> both in Spain and Italy have mentioned the Reds as potential suitors for Inter Milan\u2019s Alessandro Bastoni, but it is widely believed that the Italian favours a move to Barcelona.<\/p>\n With that in mind, sporting director Richard Hughes may have identified Inacio as an alternative, even if a bid may not be lodged for the player this summer.<\/p>\n Of course, if Chelsea or United step up their pursuit of the Sporting defender, Hughes would have a decision to make.<\/p>\n Want more news on Liverpool? Add Walk On as a preferred source on Google<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This article contains affiliate links. We may earn a small commission on items purchased through…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":631,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Konate\u2019s new contract reduces the urgency to sign a centre-half<\/h2>\n
Inacio could be Liverpool\u2019s alternative to Bastoni<\/h2>\n
While replacing van Dijk isn\u2019t an immediate concern, as the Dutchman\u2019s contract expires at the end of next season, it is something that has to be planned for.<\/p>\n